Georgian Parliament Speaker calls for US-Georgia relations based on mutual respect

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said that while the United States had the right to pursue its own interests, Georgia must also safeguard its national priorities.

In his remarks, Papuashvili emphasised that relations between states should be based on mutual respect for each other’s interests.

“The very reason states exist independently is to pursue their own interests. That the US pursues its interests is an axiom. The falsehood was when former [US] ambassadors tried to convince us they were acting in Georgia’s interest”, the Speaker said.

Referring to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Papuashvili recalled how then-US Ambassador Kelly Degnan pressed Georgian officials to take a harder stance against Russia.

“On February 28, just four days after the war began and Russian troops were already surrounding Kyiv, [US] Ambassador Degnan came to me and categorically demanded: ‘Choose now where you stand. Escalate with Russia, impose sanctions, close borders’, and so on. When I later informed Mr. O’Brien about this, he admitted, ‘Yes, perhaps we made a mistake then by demanding too much’”, he noted.

The Speaker further added that many Western partners at the time urged Georgia to escalate tensions with Russia, which he argued would have dragged the country into war.

“Everyone was saying: ‘Close the border, impose visas, adopt sanctions.’ Had we followed that advice, today we know whose tanks could have been standing on our territory”, the Speaker continued.

Papuashvili also criticised the use of US funds in Georgia, alleging that American taxpayers’ money was spent on political movements, ideological agendas unfamiliar to Georgian society, and even campaigns against the Georgian Orthodox Church. He claimed that recent statements from the Trump administration have confirmed these concerns.

“Everything we have been speaking about for years - harmful influence, misuse of US funds, attempts to bring in ideologies alien to our society - has now been confirmed, almost directly, by the Trump administration. What we said was true. The Georgian people and their Government were right in exposing these harmful processes. Therefore, after acknowledging past mistakes, the logical step would be to build relations on respect for each other’s interests. We have expressed readiness for this many times”, he concluded.