President Aliyev Meets UK Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan Caspian Post
Day: December 10, 2025
On December 9, 2025, the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Romania organized a roundtable in Bucharest titled “Heydar Aliyev’s Role in Establishing Relations Between Azerbaijan and Romania” on the occasion of the commemoration of the National Leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev, Azernews reports, citing the embassy.
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the UK must apologize for the “falsehood” of a BBC report suggesting that Georgia may have used a military-grade chemical compound to disperse the 2024 protests, and slammed British Ambassador Gareth Ward, describing his remarks on bilateral relations as those of an ambassador of a “dignity-stripped” and “sovereignty-deprived” country.
“I think that Great Britain must first apologize for the falsehood of the public broadcaster,” Kobakhidze told journalists on December 9. “The BBC is a public broadcaster, directly funded from public sources. Accordingly, the first thing Great Britain owes is an apology for the false report it aired.”
“They created a scandal – it was an absolutely artificial attempt based on falsehood,” he added. The State Security Service of Georgia said on December 6 that authorities had used tear-gas agent to disperse the December 4–5 protests last year, dismissing claims that the “World War I–era” camite – named in the BBC investigation as a possible agent mixed in water cannons – had ever been used or purchased.
Kobakhidze reiterated the ruling party’s plans to pursue legal action against the BBC, including filing a complaint with the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the UK’s media regulator. “We intend to apply to Ofcom and then to the courts, if needed. We will use all legal means so that the BBC will be forced to apologize for the lie it spread,” he added.
Following Kobakhidze’s remarks, the British Embassy in Georgia told RFE/RL’s Georgian Service that the BBC is independent of the British state in both operational and editorial terms, and that any decision regarding an apology is for the broadcaster itself to make.
Kobakhidze also commented on remarks by British Ambassador Gareth Ward on the state of bilateral relations, delivered during the ambassador’s meeting with students at Caucasus University. According to an Embassy press release, Ward’s message was that “the UK political relationship with Georgia remains damaged because of anti-democratic pressure on the opposition and civil society.”
“This is an attack on the Georgian people. It is an attack on Georgia’s government – the government elected by the Georgian people,” Kobakhidze stressed, adding that the remarks reflected a “very tragic development.”
Kobakhidze also cited former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, saying she had “directly spoken about how the Deep State gained substantial influence over the British government.” “It is impossible to explain this otherwise,” he said. “A sovereign, dignified British bureaucracy would not have acted the way the British ambassador to Georgia acts.”
“The ambassador’s statements can be directly interpreted as statements of a dignity-stripped and sovereignty-deprived state,” Kobakhidze said, adding that “instead of making such statements, the British ambassador would better apologize for the falsehood-filled report aired by the British public broadcaster.”
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