Asked at the daily briefing on July 1 whether the U.S. is sending mixed messages by sanctioning individuals over the Foreign Agents Law while also inviting Georgian officials to Washington, Principal Deputy Spokesman of the U.S. State Department Vedant Patel responded that “it’s important that also we continue to engage with appropriate [Georgian] officials.”
The head of Georgia’s State Security Service recently visited the United States on a “business trip.” In addition, Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili has been invited to the NATO Summit in Washington in July.
According to Patel, Georgia is “a country we continue to have a range of issues that we want to prioritize in the context of that bilateral relationship with them.” He reiterated the State Department’s previous comments that the Foreign Agents legislation is “counter Georgia’s own EU aspirations” but stressed that “we still believe it’s important to engage, and there continue to be other issues that we have no doubt we’ll talk about with them.”
On June 6, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller announced the first tranche of visa restrictions against “dozens” of Georgian individuals, including members of the Georgian Dream party, MPs, law enforcement officials, and private citizens over the adoption of the Foreign Agents Law.
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