U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan Thursday echoed State Department Spox’s statement claiming that Ambassador Degnan and her team at the United States Embassy in Tbilisi are committed to working with the people of Georgia in support of their Euro-Atlantic aspirations, while Degnan has the “full support” of the U.S. Department of State.

“As you heard from Ned Price [State Department Spokesman], Washington is very well-informed about what’s going on here in Georgia: they follow the news here, follow the developments here with great interest because Georgia is an important partner of the United States, and we care very deeply about the success of this country,” she went on.

“We are here in Georgia to support the people of Georgia and your aspirations to become fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic family. That is why we have supported Georgia so closely and so broadly across the past 30 years. And I’ve just been out in Svaneti and Samegrello regions, and it was wonderful to see all the people and projects that the United States has helped with over the years: in public health and education, security, economic development. It was a good reminder that the people of Georgia very much want to continue on this path toward Europe, and the United States is very proud to be able to support that. We have for 30 years and we will continue to do so,” she told reporters.

Alluding to Price’s remark that “disinformation and personal attacks on Ambassador Degnan or her team are not consistent with how partners communicate with one another,” Degnan noted that “what Mr. Price said is very true. We need to be respectful. We need to treat each other as the partners that we are.”

“What he said is that this is not the way partners communicate with each other. And I think that’s very important. I’m a diplomat. I represent the people of the United States. I don’t take anything that happens here in my capacity as the Ambassador personally. I represent the people of America and the President of the United States. What Mr. Price said is very true. We need to be respectful. We need to treat each other as the partners that we are. I think that that is where the priorities should be. When there are innuendos and rumors and speculation and comments that are not based in fact, then that can be very confusing for the people of Georgia. I don’t think that that’s very helpful to the dialogue. A much more appropriate approach is to discuss your differences in private.

As I said the other day, it is natural that there are going to be disagreements when you have a partnership, when you have a friendship: that’s true, everybody knows that. But the best way to discuss that is to do so privately. And if you have to, then speak publicly, as we have on occasion issued public statements when we have concerns about actions that the government has taken that are not in keeping with best practices, that are not helping Georgia along its path toward the Euro Atlantic future that it’s striving for here. So, I would say that fundamentally, as a diplomat, I would always prefer to engage privately, frankly, but always with respect. And that’s what I think everybody deserves,” she asserted.

The @StateDept fully supports Ambassador Degnan and her @USinGeo team. They are committed to working with the people of Georgia to further their Euro-Atlantic aspirations and continue to support peaceful efforts to end Russia’s occupation of 20 percent of Georgia’s territory. pic.twitter.com/jvy58IJSCY

— Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) July 20, 2022