Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze: If you handed Kaja Kallas a map, she couldn’t even point out Georgia

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze responded to Kaja Kallas’s EU Foreign Affairs Council doorstep statement about Georgia. The Mayor claimed that anyone who maintains a constructive approach and refrains from political speculation is well aware of Georgia’s geopolitical importance.

Kaladze remarked that the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, would face difficulties even locating Georgia on a world map.

“If you handed Kaja Kallas a map, she wouldn’t even be able to show you where Georgia is. So what are we really talking about? Every sensible person who maintains a balanced view on these issues, and isn’t engaging in political speculation, knows full well how much Georgia matters,” Kaladze said.

The Tbilisi Mayor accused external actors of seeking to install a puppet government in Georgia to advance their own agenda.

“In this specific case, we know what the primary goal is: to somehow bring representatives of their foreign agent network into power so they can use the country to serve their own interests and make them do whatever they wish; just as we see happening in Ukraine. That is a truly tragic and disheartening example,” Kaladze asserted.

Tbilisi Mayor went on to defend Georgia’s domestic achievements, insisting the nation leads the region in economic growth and democratic standards.

“Everyone knows full well Georgia’s importance, both due to our strategic location and in other key respects; Georgia is a frontrunner. Look at our economic and democratic development over recent years; look at our freedom of speech and expression. But I mean real freedom of speech, not the version that suits them, where abusing people, using obscenity, hurling insults, and bullying those with differing opinions is tolerated. Under their view, if you think differently, they run you over. That may be democracy to them, but it is not to us. Every individual ought to have true freedom of speech and expression, and that is precisely the kind of country we are building,” Mayor Kaladze emphasised.

His comments followed statements by EU High Representative Kaja Kallas before the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg, where she told reporters: “Today we will discuss Georgia very briefly, but I will propose that we hold an in-depth discussion on Georgia in January.”