“Some ambassadors are engaging in certain political theatrics, and unfortunately, it seems that the EU Ambassador has also decided to follow this trend,” said Levan Makhashvili, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on European Integration, when speaking to journalists about the issue of summoning the EU Ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to him, “an ambassador must respect the host country and do what is appropriate and permitted for an ambassador.”

“I will avoid lengthy discussions on this topic; the situation is very simple. He is an ambassador and has obligations to respect the host country, take into account the full context, and maintain a neutral position. Instead of this, we repeatedly see such statements during pre-election periods and after elections. We have seen many cases where they first swear brotherhood to the Georgian population and then act otherwise, making such strange, threatening statements. It is simply unimaginable.

No Georgian ambassador would dare to make references to the dark past of any country, let alone speak to its population with threats, for a very simple reason - this is not the duty of an ambassador. An ambassador must respect the host country and act within the limits of their mandate. Therefore, everyone should refrain from engaging in political processes and political theatrics and do what is their duty, what they agreed to when they received agrément and approval to be appointed here - that they would respect Georgia, including its political processes, and remain neutral actors, not direct participants in political affairs,” Makhashvili said.

Responding to a question about the EU Embassy’s statement following the meeting with Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili, he said they should respect Georgia and consider the full political context in a neutral manner.

“Their strong side is not talking from the fence. They should respect Georgia and take into account the entire political context in a neutral way. The purpose of the meeting was simply to provide clarification about what statement was made and why. Everything else is an old, well-forgotten story.

Even if they repeat the same statements and accusations a million times, a phone will not become a car. So this is not particularly interesting to us. The key issue was simple - an explanation of what statement was made and why. So additional accusations from there are not of interest to us.

Let them explain to the public what necessity led to those threatening statements. I do not want to enter into that political circus. The only thing expected from him as a diplomat is to respect Georgia’s sovereignty and not be an active participant in political processes. Nothing more is required of him here,” Makhashvili said.

When asked whether “Georgian Dream” plans to change anything, he stated that if anyone should change anything in these relations, it is the Brussels side.

“The public can see that in recent months we have been talking about the need for dialogue and cooperation, and instead we receive threatening statements. Let society see who is actually interested in dialogue and who is interested in returning to a dark past,” Makhashvili said.

The statement comes after the EU Ambassador to Georgia, Paweł Herczyński, met with Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili on April 27, a meeting that was linked to earlier remarks by the ambassador that Georgia is no longer on the right trajectory toward the EU.