Great Britain has decided to suspend the "Wardrop Dialogue" with Georgia at the ministerial level and cancel the negotiations at the highest level between the headquarters of the ministries of defense.
Great Britainʼs ambassador to Georgia Gareth Ward told about this to the IPN agency.
The “Wardrop Dialogue” is an annual high-level strategic dialogue format between the UK and Georgia. It was launched in 2014 and named after Oliver Wardrop, the first British High Commissioner to Georgia in 1919-1921.
The ambassador expressed hope that after the elections, the Georgian government will return to a pro-Western course and trust between the parties will be restored.
According to him, relations between Great Britain and Georgia, as well as with other Western partners, were damaged by the actions of the Georgian government this year.
"We were concerned when the parliament passed a law that restricts the activities of civil society, although it saw a lot of opposition from the public, and pledged not to put this law back on the agenda. We were disappointed when the leaders of the ʼGeorgian Dreamʼ began to put forward conspiracy theories and make assumptions that Western partners are undermining Georgia. We were shocked when ʼGeorgian Dreamʼ called the banning of opposition parties a promise of its election platform,” says Ward.
He noted that they decided to freeze the “Wardrop Dialogue” for the first time since the creation of the dialogue format. Planned high-level talks between defense chiefs have also been canceled and a new cybersecurity program has been suspended.
- On July 9, the European Union suspended the process of Georgiaʼs integration, and on October 4, it suspended high-level meetings. All because of the law on "foreign agents", which was finally adopted by the Parliament of Georgia on May 14, despite the resistance of the opposition and mass protests in the capital with clashes. This document provides for the creation of a special register, which will list all non-commercial legal entities and mass media that are financed from abroad by more than 20%. They must publish an annual financial report — otherwise they will receive fines and inspections.
- On September 17, the Parliament of Georgia adopted draft laws limiting the rights of LGBT people. The document actually repeats a similar Russian law.
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