The Ministry of Finance of Georgia on Thursday issued a statement “on the allegations of some politicians and media outlets in reference to the enforcement of international sanctions by Georgia appearing in the international media and namely in the Politico. ”

Below is the full statement:

As the article claims, reference was made to the verbal statement made by U.S. Ambassador Jim O’Brien, Head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. Department of State on the enforcement of sanctions.

It is unfortunate that the referred statement of the high-ranking US official was again misinterpreted by a media outlet and used as disinformation against Georgia. It is worth noting that this is not the first instance when a media outlet is misinterpreting the statements made by Mr. O’Brien.

It is noteworthy that Politico is making reference to a dialogue organized during an open discussion held within the scope of an Annual Meeting of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) on June 7-8, 2023 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-jdOX42Cow) with an engagement of U.S. Ambassador Jim O’Brien, Head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. Department of State. Among other topics, dialogue touched upon economic sanctions imposed against Russia by the international community, along with global challenges faced in their execution and cooperation of the USA and EU with partner states for the prevention of risks borne by the potential circumvention of sanctions.

On the question raised during the discussion on countries cooperating in the increased effectiveness of sanctions and measuring success of the USA and the European Union in preventing the avoidance of sanctions, Georgia was mentioned not as a country where the sanctions imposed by our international partners are being circumvented, but as the one that actively cooperates with partners in order to prevent violations of the sanctions regime as much as possible.

Based on the very active and effective cooperation on sanctions-related issues, between Georgia and the USA, contrary to the interpretation made by the above-mentioned media outlets and certain politicians, we are assured Georgia being the cause of the sanctions circumvention does not reflect the position of the United States nor the nature of our cooperation in this regard.

Since the enforcement of international sanctions, Georgia has issued over 1200 Customs Rulings on rejecting the sanctioned goods from Customs Check-Points of Georgia, export or re-export intentions made within the Economic Clearance Zones and over 800 Customs Rulings on refusing to the verbal/written applications of various entities.

Once again, we declare that Georgia is fully adhering to international sanctions and is actively cooperating with partner countries.