The US State Department has confirmed that Georgian Ambassador Tamar Taliashvili was summoned over allegations that the US is funding ‘radicals’ in Georgia through its embassy in Thailand. Previously, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze claimed that reports of her summons were a ‘lie’.
In a written statement to Netgazeti published on Tuesday, the State Department said the initial summoning was over ‘statements of Georgian government officials’ that ‘misrepresented routine financial transfers made by the US government to former employees’.
‘Instead of seeking an explanation, senior officials of the Georgian government preferred to circulate this false information spread by the media, creating an atmosphere of harassment and intimidation for former and current employees of the US Embassy’, the State Department said.
The agency further added that the distribution of funds through the US Embassy in Thailand are ‘routine, transparent, and are carried out in full compliance with US and host country laws and regulations’.
Earlier in October, Mamuka Mdinaradze, the head of Georgia’s State Security Service (SSG), claimed that the American Embassy in Thailand ‘has people in Georgia who are funded for anti-Chinese purposes’.
Without citing any evidence, Mdinaradze added that around ‘95-98%’ of the embassy’s funding is used in support of ‘radicals against the government, for revolutionary purposes’, among other provocative activities.
While Mdinaradze did not directly mention the US Embassy in Thailand at first — simply saying ‘the embassy of one country in Thailand’ — he later said ‘This is how American taxpayer money is being spent, which elected the government of their country to allow them to fight “Chinese threats” ’.
He added that it was ‘understandable from their perspective’ that the US would be interested in pushing back against Chinese ‘threats’, but claimed that the money was instead being spent to fund opposition to the Georgian government.
The following day, a spokesperson from the US Embassy in Georgia told RFE/RL that Georgian Ambassador Taliashvili had been summoned over the remarks.
‘We are deeply concerned that high-ranking officials of the Georgian government are irresponsibly spreading false information spread by the media, which has led to a campaign of harassment and intimidation of the public, which is completely based on false information’, the spokesperson said.
Kobakhidze then acknowledged that Taliashvili had held meetings in the US, including with members of the State Department, but claimed it was a ‘lie’ that she had been summoned.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
