Lelo’s Kupradze: Government is working on alternatives to Anaklia’s existing masterplan, meaning port will not be built

Official documents indicate the government is exploring alternatives to the current master plan for the Anaklia Port project, Irakli Kupradze, a member of the opposition Lelo–Strong Georgia party, has stated.

Speaking at a briefing earlier today, Kupradze explained that a revision of the existing plan is underway, which, in his words, amounts to the death of the Anaklia project once again and confirms that the port will not be built.

“Today, we are bringing new and significant details to the public’s attention regarding the Anaklia Port project. The details that once again confirm that one of the country’s most strategically important projects is in deep crisis. Official documents reveal that the government is working on alternatives to the current master plan for Anaklia Port. To this end, a new contract has been signed with an international consultancy firm, whose remit is to review the existing project, propose new options, and produce fresh cargo flow projections. This means that the project people have been talking about for years is no longer viable. This means that Anaklia is not being built; Anaklia is being killed off once more. And the most alarming detail of all is that even the contract itself does not explain why such a drastic change became necessary.

In other words, the government either cannot or will not tell the truth about what has gone wrong, why it has gone wrong, and who is accountable. What is more, the government has been deceiving the public for nearly two years now. In 2024, it was announced that an investment agreement with a Chinese state company would be signed ‘within the coming days.’ Today, we see there is no contract, no investor, and no completed project. If you are rewriting the master plan from scratch, you are delaying the project, stalling, dithering, abandoning it.

If you have spent two years failing to reach an agreement with an investor, your negotiations have collapsed. If you have retreated once again into ‘analysis mode’, the country is starting from zero all over again. This is the consequence of Georgian Dream’s governance: lost time, squandered opportunities, and an uncertain future,” Kupradze declared.

According to Kupradze, the government had allowed the Anaklia project to fail.

“It was killed by a political decision that severed the country from its Western partners, and which today leaves us mired in an uncertain, risky, and protracted process. Meanwhile, the regional situation is changing rapidly. At the international level, a new geopolitical opportunity is emerging, the development of a Trans-Caucasian transit corridor that could become one of the principal economic arteries of the twenty-first century.

The United States and Western partners are actively engaged in this process. This is a window of opportunity for Georgia, a chance to return to the great game and claim its rightful place. But this open window must be seized. It demands a clear and deliberate choice,” Kupradze said.

Kupradze went on to present Lelo – Strong Georgia’s vision for the way forward.

“Lelo – Strong Georgia declares: this chance must not be lost again. We have a clear plan for what must be done.

The Anaklia Port project must be declared the country’s number one national priority. A leading role in the project must be assigned to American and transatlantic financial institutions to guarantee its stability, credibility, and security.

Anaklia Port must be granted the status of a strategic asset of national importance. The project must be fully transparent, every contract made public, so that backroom dealings and past mistakes are never repeated. And crucially, there must be no place in this process for those forces that act against Georgia’s strategic interests.

We are ready, now, and from the moment we come to power, to ensure the swift and genuine realisation of this project. Anaklia is not merely a port. Anaklia is Georgia’s economic, security, and geopolitical future.

Today, once again, the choice must be made: development or delay, the West or uncertainty, the future or lost opportunities. Lelo–Strong Georgia stands, in this choice, on the side of Georgia’s future. The country needs Anaklia, the Georgian people need Anaklia, and Anaklia will be built,” Kupradze declared.