“We hope to have more discussions to see any step on transparency matching European norms as Georgia goes forward. We were promised that there would be the opportunity for this before the law is implemented,”  James C. O’Brien, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, stated at a press conference in Tbilisi.

As Jim O’Brien pointed out, neither the process nor the law meets these standards.

“Some advocates of the Transparency of Foreign Influence law say that transparency of funding must be a prime national interest of Georgia. They feel that some Western funders are not as transparent as we might be. Our interest is in seeing Georgia converge with the European Union and transatlantic norms for addressing issues like transparency. Frankly, we think neither the process nor the, the actual law implemented meets that standard. We hope to have more discussions to see any step on transparency matching European norms as Georgia goes forward. We were promised that there would be the opportunity for this before the law is implemented. I was very clear that there would be consequences if the law were implemented as it now stands. The Prime Ministers referred to this as coercion, but it’s not.

Georgia is attempting to join the EU and NATO. Those organizations have certain standards and certain referees that say what the rules are, and we simply want Georgia to continue to match those standards rather than to deviate. But there is a sense because a decision by Georgia to not converge with Europe would be a rejection of the path that is in Georgia’s own constitution. We believe, and we see it in the polls, we see it on the streets, we hear it from every political party, including Georgian Dream, backers of Georgian Dream, their business community and others. The Georgian people very much want to continue down that path, and we will stand with them as we have for more than 30 years, and we will stand with them going forward,” the US Assistant Secretary of State declared.

O’Brien suggested that properly modifying the law could strengthen the partnership between Georgia and its international allies. However, he expressed concern about broader conversations within the Georgian Dream leadership, which he described as misconceptions about the international community’s relationship with Georgia. He shared an example of miscommunication regarding sanctions against Bedzina Ivanishvili, clarifying that there were no such sanctions in place.

“So in this sense, if the conversations that we discussed today happen and the law is properly modified, it will be a way of strengthening our partnership, rather than wrenching it apart, which I fear that it is now doing. But that was just one kind of conversation that I had, and the law is a small part of a broader conversation, and the broader conversation concerns comments by leaders of the Georgian Dream, that there is a global war party, and that Georgia must turn away from the commitments made to the global war party, and that there is a conspiracy by the West to remove Georgian Dream from office despite 12 years of strong cooperation. It is unreal, wrong, and a complete misunderstanding of the international community’s relationship to Georgia.

One example of it is what the Prime Minister mentioned last night. So we had reached out for conversations with all stakeholders. We had invited the Prime Minister to Washington to discuss the law and the relationship. The European Union had discussions here and was promised time for a conversation about the law. I asked before coming here, I was happy to see Mr. Ivanashvili again. The PM said he [Ivanishvili] would not see me because we have on him defacto sanctions. There are no any sanctions on him at this point. For such an influential individual to be that badly misinformed is shocking and disappointing,” Jim O’Brien added.