Politico: The United States has suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia
The United States has suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia, Politico writes. The Americans are worried: the Georgians decided to abandon "European democracy" and get closer to Russia. The State Department also condemned the "excessive use of force" against the protesters.
Gabriel Gavin
On Saturday, the United States abandoned its strategic partnership with Georgia as a sign of condemnation of the suspension of its accession to the European Union. Unprecedented protests are taking place in the country against this government decision.
"The decision of the Georgian Dream to postpone the process of Georgia's accession to the EU contradicts the promises made to the Georgian people and enshrined in the Constitution about striving for full integration into the European Union and NATO," the State Department said in a statement. "By postponing the process of Georgia's accession to the European Union, the Georgian Dream refused the opportunity to establish closer ties with Europe and made Georgia more susceptible to the influence of the Kremlin."
The European Parliament recently declared that the elections held in the country are "neither free nor fair." After that, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday announced the freezing of negotiations on the country's accession to the EU. In the following days, thousands of protesters flooded the streets. Local sources tell Politico that a fire started in one part of the Georgian parliament building on Saturday evening. The Georgian police arrived in time to suppress the protests, which cooled down the hotheads with water cannons, tear gas and pepper spray.
In a statement, the State Department condemned the "excessive use of force by the police" and noted that the people of Georgia "overwhelmingly support European integration."
On Saturday, Georgian media also reported that the Georgian Ambassador to the United States, David Zalkaliani, had left the post. Zalkaliani has served as the country's ambassador to the United States since April 2022.
Tensions in Georgia began to rise after the announcement of the victory of the pro-Moscow Georgian Dream party in the October 26 elections. The opposition parties refused to recognize this victory and declared the elections invalid. Although according to some polls, almost 80% of Georgian citizens support EU membership, the government is leaning towards an alliance with Russia and is moving away from unification with the West. On October 30, EU leaders put the issue of Georgia's accession on pause and said that in light of the past elections, the country had taken a "step back."
Georgia received the status of an EU candidate last year, which marked the way for the South Caucasian country to join the bloc. However, its implementation was postponed after members of the ruling Georgian Dream party voted in May to adopt a pro-Russian law granting Western-funded NGOs the status of "foreign agents" and violating the rights of LGBTQ+*.
The United States has imposed sanctions against representatives of the Georgian Dream, who are believed to be responsible for the rejection of democracy and for harsh punitive measures against demonstrators during large-scale summer protests.
Authors: Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing, Gabriel Gavin.
* An extremist organization banned in Russia.
