“Lately we have seen a real turn from the West by Georgia – the attacks against the USA are unprecedented, it really makes us ponder,” former US Ambassador to Georgia, Ian Kelly, said at the conference ‘The Oligarch, Russian Links, War in Ukraine and the Future of Georgia’.
He noted that “US policy towards Georgia has always been very specific”.
“Since Georgia expressed its desire to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic Community, this policy has been to support these Euro-Atlantic aspirations in any way we can. Of course, a big part of this was to make sure that Georgia remained independent and sovereign from Russia.
“However, lately we have seen a real turn from the West by Georgia, which is very worrying for us. This kind of detour, combined with very strong attacks against the US, and these attacks are truly unprecedented in more than 30 years of diplomatic relations with Georgia, really make us ponder whether we need to reconsider how we are supporting these Euro-Atlantic aspirations and what we can do to stop this anti-Western trend – the trend of not implementing the necessary reforms.
“I think we need to look at the ways in which we can help the people of Georgia to achieve their historical aspirations – to unite in the collective West. And I think we need to look at the people who are making this turn from the West and consider the targeted heavy prices that we can impose on them for what appears to be a very dangerous way of not aligning with the West,” Kelly said.
