The British Ambassador to Georgia, Gareth Ward, spoke about his country’s concerns over the “democratic backsliding and anti-Western rhetoric” of the Georgian ruling party and said that the UK’s decided to freeze the bilateral ministerial talks, the Wardrop Dialogue – for the first time since its inception 10 years ago, as well as not to hold Defense Staff talks and suspend a new cybersecurity program. Ambassador Ward shared his views in an interview with Interpresnews published on October 15, civil.ge reports.
Ambassador Ward noted that prior to his appointment in July, he was optimistic about Georgia because of the country’s “Euro-Atlantic course and strong economic outlook.” He noted: “I expected that we would work together to increase Georgia’s resilience and our mutual prosperity.”
However, he stressed that after his arrival he had to change his views because of the Georgian Government’s decision to pursue a different course. “…so in my first months in Tbilisi I have focused on making clear our concerns about democratic backsliding and anti-Western rhetoric. I hope for a change in approach from the Georgian Government that will allow me to return to my optimistic vision.”
In discussing UK-Georgian relations, the Ambassador noted that they have been damaged, as have Georgia’s relations with other Western partners. He noted that official London was “very concerned” about Georgian Dream’s decision to pass the Foreign Agents Law despite mass opposition, “shocked” by GD’s manifesto advocating a ban on opposition parties, and “disappointed” by the promotion of conspiracy theories suggesting that Western partners were “undermining Georgia.”
“For those reasons, for the first time in 10 years since we started our bilateral Wardrop Dialogue, we on the UK side decided to freeze these ministerial talks. We have not held our planned Defence Staff talks, and we have paused new cyber security programming. After the elections, whoever is in Government, we hope to see clear evidence of a return to the Euro-Atlantic track in order to rebuild trust and return to a close partnership,” stressed Ambassador Ward.