Gakharia for Georgia’s Sichinava: Transatlantic bond will endure US-EU friction and poses no obstacle to Georgia’s European integration

“Should the United States and the European Union face friction in their bilateral relations, the transatlantic bond is resilient enough to weather the storm without setting back Georgia’s accession to the EU,” declared Berdia Sichinava, a member of the Gakharia for Georgia party.

Sichinava was commenting on recent remarks by EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, who asserted that candidate nations seeking EU accession must sever ties with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement to secure membership.

According to Sichinava, framing Georgia’s foreign policy as an either-or choice between strategic partnership with the EU or the United States is fundamentally flawed.

“I believe people are taking Marta Kos’s statement far too seriously. Should the United States and the European Union face certain friction in their relationship, I am confident the transatlantic alliance will endure and overcome it. It will create no preconditions or barriers for Georgia’s integration into the EU, given that the United States remains our strategic partner. This relationship has been forged over decades, just as our European choice represents a decade-spanning commitment. Therefore, presenting this as a binary dilemma that our strategic partnership must lie either with the EU or with the United States is patently incorrect.

You ought not to overinterpret Marta Kos’s statement. Whilst political rhetoric of this nature is natural, I am convinced the transatlantic bond rests upon values far more substantial and enduring than any passing squabbles between Washington and Brussels under a given administration. Georgia faces no false choice between maintaining strong relations with the United States or with Europe for one very simple reason.

Marta Kos is a single European Commissioner serving a fixed term who frequently issues political declarations. However, that hardly implies that Marta Kos’s specific personal assessments will ultimately dictate EU policy,” Sichinava stated.