We have been working very closely with the Georgian authorities for a year now, since it began, to share information about the trade flow that is going through Georgia, stated U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan, on Thursday.

According to Ambassador, the US has had very good cooperation from the Georgian authorities, the customs, the revenue service, and the border patrol, “all with whom we have been close partners for many years”.

“Doing training, and providing equipment and all of these have proven to be a specially valuable right now when it is so important to be monitoring what is coming across Georgia’s borders. And we had very, very good cooperation from the Georgian authorities at this critical time. The meeting between the Minister of Finance and our Sanctions Coordinator was focused on this because as this Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine goes on, we are learning more and more about how Russia is trying to evade sanctions and evade export control regulations, not just the United States but also those imposed by the European Union, by Japan, by the UK. So, this is an important part of our partnership to continue to share information and to tighten our controls in order to stop the flow of goods that are being used by Russia’s war machine against Ukraine. And we had very good cooperation from the Georgian authorities on this point,” said Kelly Degnan.

Minister of Finance Lasha Khutsishvili met with the Head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the US State Department, Ambassador James O’Brien, on April 11, during his visit to the US.