Reuters: Georgian President Sees Strong US Ties Maintained under Trump

TBILISI – “Georgia expects relations with the United States under Donald Trump to remain strong despite his calls for improved ties with Russia, and Tbilisi will keep pressing for closer collaboration with NATO,” Giorgi Margvelashvili, the President of Georgia told Reuters on November 29 in Tbilisi.

Margvelashvili said that Trump stirred concerns in central and Eastern Europe during the US election campaign with his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and also his suggestion that the United States may not defend allies deemed to spend too little on defense.

“Georgia wants to join NATO, though the Atlantic Alliance has played down its chances, and Russia, which fought a brief war with the south Caucasus nation in 2008, is firmly opposed,” he added.

The President underlined that Georgia’s relations and communication with President Donald Trump, as well as with Georgia’s friends and allies in Congress from the Republican and Democratic sides, would be maintained through mutual interests and goals that were and had been shared for the last 25 years.

Margvelashvili said he was disappointed that the visa issue was still "sitting in Brussels" even though Tbilisi has fulfilled all the necessary requirements.

"The EU and NATO are going through a conservative phase of re-evaluating challenges. We think that this conservative phase should end at some point with a more active and more engaging agenda," he said.

The President noted that a fifth of Georgian territory remains under the control of pro-Russian separatists. However, he added that Russia, Georgia's Soviet-era overlord, remained a serious international player and that Tbilisi would pursue a constructive dialogue with Moscow despite tensions.

"We think that Russia should be a factor that should be taken into consideration by its neighbors as well as by other international players," said Margvelashvili, 47, a philosopher by training.

However, the President emphasized that good relations with Russia were only possible if it respected Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"Russia's occupation of Georgia is a historically unfair move. This will never be accepted by our society nor will it be accepted by Georgia's political leadership," he said.

By Thea Morrison