Irakli Kobakhidze is optimistic that a strategic partnership with the US and Georgia suspended under the Biden regime can be restored under the presidency of Donald Trump, the Georgian Prime Minister has told Euronews’ in an exclusive interview.
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00:00It's been a dramatic few months since the Georgian Dream Party won the country's parliamentary
00:13elections amid accusations of unfair voting.
00:18In this episode of the Europe Conversation, I sit down with Georgian Prime Minister Orakli
00:23Kobakidze to find out whether Georgia is still on that European path, its relationship with
00:29Russia and what the future holds as the new US administration makes waves in the region.
00:37Prime Minister, great to see you again. Before the elections, you told Euronews that you wanted
00:44Georgia to be a fully-fledged member of the European family. After all that has happened
00:51between Tbilisi and Brussels since then, if Brussels were to call tomorrow, would you go
00:58and would you go into talks and restart those negotiations?
01:04Thank you for your interest and it's great to see you again and to have this opportunity to
01:08speak to your audience. Yes, so we have a very strong foreign policy priority and that's the
01:16full-fledged membership in the European Union. We are facing some significant challenges with
01:24the European bureaucracy but we are still very optimistic that Georgia's new membership by 2030
01:31is achievable. So that's our medium-term goal and we will be consistent in terms of following
01:36this goal and I am hopeful that the approach towards Georgia will be more fair in the next
01:45upcoming years. So we will do our best in order to promote our European path.
01:50Are relations with the EU at a crisis point as far as you're concerned then?
01:56We are interested to have a kind of healthy relations with the European Union, which is not
02:02the case at this moment, but we are confident that it's not because of Georgia's policies,
02:11it's because of the European bureaucracy's policies towards Georgia. So if that policy changes,
02:17everything will be in a better shape. Looking at your strategy for moving ahead then,
02:23you know, is Georgia very firmly on that pro-European path? If it's not immediate,
02:29what is your path for the foreseeable future? Well, absolutely. So again, we are committed to
02:35the European integration. We stand ready to consistently fulfil all the obligations
02:42deriving from the association agenda, deriving from the DCFTE. So that's a very clear agenda
02:47and we will be patient. We will wait for the European kind of decisions about Georgia's
02:57European integration. So we have to demonstrate this patience, but at the same time we will
03:03consistently fulfil all the obligations which are about accelerating our European integration.
03:11How are you taking that conversation with the Georgian people forwards? You know,
03:16was the election enough? Do you think you'll be holding a referendum in the near future?
03:22So we are the government for all citizens. Our support was 54%, but around 38% of Georgians
03:33voted for the radical opposition. We have to take care also of their interests. It's also
03:38one of our responsibilities. What is your current relationship like with Russia? Do you have any
03:44plans to reopen the Russian embassy in Tbilisi? We have no diplomatic relations and there is
03:51no space for restoring diplomatic relations because of the occupation of our two historic
03:59regions and because of the so-called recognition of the so-called independence of Abkhazia and
04:05the Tskhinvali region. But we are running a pragmatic policy and that's the key content of
04:12our policy towards Russia. We are keeping the trade and economic relations with Russia and
04:20that's how we are going to run it further, to have pragmatic policy towards the Russian Federation.
04:27That's one of our policy lines in terms of the foreign policy of the country.
04:36Around 20% of Georgia's territory is occupied by Russia. Does Georgia intend to take
04:45those territories and reclaim them back? So the territorial integrity of Georgia is of course
04:53one of the national issues for our country, for our people. This territorial integrity is
05:01recognized by the international community and of course we have to defend our national interests
05:08in this respect. But our vision is peaceful. We have been repeatedly saying that
05:17a non-peaceful solution is absolutely impossible. In this case and only peacefully
05:25we would like to restore our territorial integrity. There is no alternative.
05:30And we are hopeful that at some point this will be realistic. Let's see.
05:36Georgia has lost more than 14,000 lives through Russian aggression over the years. You know,
05:45Georgians understand the situation better than anyone else, you know, from anyone who suffered
05:51from a war. If Russia and Ukraine were to enter into a peace agreement, who would you be backing?
06:01So we suffered a lot since the early 90s, as you have mentioned, and that was the key reason
06:08why we had to fight a lot so intensively to avoid another war in Georgia.
06:16And it was not easy for us not to become the second front line because there was a very high
06:22interest and there was a request in this respect and we did our best to avoid another war in
06:28Georgia. In terms of the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, I think it has
06:35no alternative. From the very beginning, from February 2022, we have been saying that the
06:43peace ceasefire has no alternative. People are dying. Of course, the international community
06:50should be fully concentrated on promoting this ceasefire agreement and the peace.
06:56That's the key for improving the overall situation in the region and in the world.
07:01Do you see Georgia's future as being fully integrated into Western security and the
07:08economic system, even if it means a worsening relationship with Russia?
07:13So, you know, we have quite clear foreign policy goals in terms of the NATO integration. That's
07:19not on the agenda at this moment because of the Western countries' kind of decisions and
07:25approaches and the overall context around us. But the European integration is the key foreign
07:31policy priority. Of course, while making any step, we have to take into consideration all the
07:41side effects of it. For example, we had to make a very kind of crucial decision about not
07:47introducing sanctions against the Russian Federation, which was requested behind closed
07:54doors and sometimes also publicly by the Western stakeholders. We had to defend our national
08:01interests. So we had calculated quite in a simple way that introducing sanctions against the Russian
08:08Federation would cause huge problems for the Georgian economy. Even in the first year,
08:16the recession would make around minus 10 percent. And according to the pessimistic
08:26scenario, it could reach even minus 18 percent. So finally, you always have to make balanced
08:32decisions. But finally, I think that we can finally become the full-fledged member
08:39of the European Union without sacrificing our key national interests.
08:43You mentioned earlier the new U.S. administration. You know, they're bringing evolutions into the
08:48region. What is your focus there? Have you spoken to Trump yet?
08:52Not yet. But we are optimistic and the Georgian people are optimistic when they are listening to
08:57the recent statements, also about USAID, for example, about NED. So we have been talking
09:04about these problems since 2021. We have initiated the transparency law in Georgia,
09:11which has been criticized by the U.S. embassy very heavily under the previous administration.
09:17This law was just about the transparency, about submitting the annual financial declarations by
09:21the NGOs to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. And the U.S. embassy under the previous administration
09:29the U.S. embassy under the previous administration say that it was a black day for Georgia.
09:36So we are very much happy that our messages are the same, coinciding with the new
09:41administration's messages. And of course, these developments make us very optimistic
09:50that we can restore the partnership with the United States. You know that the
09:55former administration suspended the strategic partnership with Georgia. And we have stated
10:02very clearly that Georgia is ready to restore the strategic partnership with the United States.
10:10Can you tell me about the strategic role that Georgia plays as a transit door between Asia
10:17and Europe? How important is that?
10:21Initiative. Historically, Georgia was connecting Europe with Asia and East with the West. And we
10:27would like to restore this historic function for Georgia as much as possible. And for that,
10:34we are doing a lot. We are investing into our infrastructure, including the highways,
10:38the seaports, the airports, etc., railway. And of course, these investments create some
10:45new opportunities for Georgia. We would like to further strengthen the partnership
10:50with relevant countries on both sides of the trade, with Europe, with the United States,
10:56and at the same time with the countries in the South Caucasus, with Central Asian countries,
11:04with China. I think these kinds of trends, the positive trends that we enjoy at this moment,
11:10can promote the restoration of our strategic function.
11:14Very finally, if you could send individual messages to President Trump, President Putin,
11:22and then also to Europe, what would those individual messages be?
11:26I would have some common message for everybody around us. Fearness is the key. I think
11:35during the last years, we had to face a lot of unfair approaches. I think the fair approach can
11:41also properly promote the objective interests of all different countries around us.
11:49Prime Minister, thank you, as always, for talking to Euronews. Pleasure to see you today.
11:53It's great. Thank you so much.