Georgian PM accuses European bureaucracy of abandoning European values

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday emphasised that Georgia would continue to pursue foreign policy “only with dignity”, arguing that the European bureaucracy no longer reflected traditional European values and that deepening cooperation with China was aligned with Georgia’s national interests.

In his remarks, Kobakhidze framed China as a peaceful global force, rejecting Western criticisms of the country, and stressed that Beijing had not participated in military conflicts in nearly half a century.

“What is important here in terms of values: China is the only peaceful superpower in the modern world, as the history of recent decades has shown. They are trying to discredit China, labelling it with all kinds of epithets, trying to portray it as some kind of dark state, but facts are facts. If we speak based on facts here as well - since 1979, if I am not mistaken, maybe I’m off by one year - China has not been involved in a single war. Vietnam was in 1979, and since then, a superpower with such huge resources has not been involved in any war. It is the only superpower that has not been engaged in war for almost half a century”, he said.

The Prime Minister further added that Georgia was actively expanding its partnership with China, highlighting how China treated partner states - regardless of size - with equality and respect.

“This is a very important value, which is exactly why we made the decision to deepen cooperation with China - because it has values, and with those values it treats other states, whether large or small. One of the defining characteristics of China - one of the main pillars of its foreign policy, even a formal element of its political doctrine - is that the size of a country, its population, or its territory does not matter: it treats every country equally. This is dignity. When we talk about dignity, this is also an indicator of dignity - you express your own dignity, and you respect the dignity of others”, he noted.

Kobakhidze argued that European institutions had strayed from the values they historically represented, making it necessary for Georgia to preserve its current foreign policy approach in order to safeguard national dignity and interests.

“And what is the attitude of the European bureaucracy in contrast? - I will talk to you only on my own terms if you want something, and so on. Such conditions are inherently undignified. All of this shows that the European bureaucracy has completely detached itself from traditional European values. Therefore, of course, we must preserve this policy - only with dignity. Otherwise, we cannot protect our national interests”, the PM concluded.