Georgian Parliament Speaker: Biden administration severely damaged Georgian-American relations - fundamental “reset” now required to restore strategic partnership

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the previous US administration severely damaged Georgian-American relations and that a fundamental “reset” was now required to restore the strategic partnership.

In his remarks, Papuashvili expressed the Georgian Government’s readiness to start relations from a clean slate that implied the elimination of the injustices that had existed in the relations between the parties so far.

“Once again, we propose to the United States to restore a strategic partnership, which will be a relationship based on predetermined mutual interests. As for meetings, working-level meetings have never stopped between foreign ministries, between diplomatic missions, working-level meetings continue, however, for us, of course, the most important thing is the political level of this relationship, which implies a reset of relations between Georgia and the United States”, the Speaker said.

“A clean slate means that everything that is unfair in our relations must be eliminated, including the allegations that we hear from the Helsinki Commission - we are confused, China, Russia, Iran... We are triple agents, so to speak, the entire state, if we believe Mr. [Joe] Wilson. Entirely undermining the country and its people through such attacks from various politicians must end. The policy declared as central by former President Trump focuses not on influence or harmful ideologies but on openly stated interests. Diplomacy involves clear communication of interests and finding alignment, not imposing ideologies”, he concluded.