“Our desire is that the strategic partnership - in which Georgia, in its time, perhaps did more relative to its scale than the previous US administration - should begin this strategic relationship from a new page. We have expressed this desire. Anyone who wishes to be friends with us and to have a strategic partnership, we are ready for that,” Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili told journalists when speaking about Georgia-US relations.

According to Shalva Papuashvili’s assessment, a rethinking of policy toward Georgia is increasingly taking place.

“I think the term ‘settling’ is incorrect if we respect our country and our sovereignty. What we are doing is fulfilling the will of the Georgian people, and according to the last elections this is 1,120,000 citizens of Georgia who gave us the mandate to govern the country as we are governing it and to lead it toward the goals we are leading it toward. We have this mandate from 1,120,000 Georgians. This mandate means that any infringement on Georgia’s sovereignty is unacceptable, that no one has the right to interfere in our internal affairs and elections. We are fulfilling this mandate and we see that some people are resentful. The previous US administration was resentful that the people who were the direct executors of its will were not elected to power here. Unfortunately, some governments in Europe are also resentful that their marionettes are not in the Georgian government. We have this mandate from the Georgian people. How the other side will deal with this resentment is up to them. We do not intend to compromise on this in exchange for someone looking at us with a kind eye.

This is an independent, sovereign state, and anyone who tries to meddle in the choice of our citizens will be met with this kind of attitude.

What we have been observing lately is that, I think, a rethinking of their own attitude is taking place in the governments of various countries. Some may have hoped that they would be able to influence the will of the Georgian people, but the response of the Georgian people is very clear. We see that a rethinking of policy toward Georgia is increasingly taking place. The policy by which they tried to influence the will of the Georgian people does not work, so they must accept the will of the Georgian people as it is. This is the main principle of the UN Charter - non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and respect for sovereignty. We see that some countries are moving in this direction; among other things, we see that we also have positive dynamics with the United States,” Papuashvili states.

By positive dynamics he means that there are contacts between the administrations, and a delegation also visited with which fruitful meetings were held. According to Papuashvili, it is with this hope that they look at future relations.

“Despite the harmful decisions that the previous administration took regarding relations between the two countries, by which it cancelled the strategic partnership, tried to interfere in the elections, and so on, we are ready to turn this page and look forward, based on the fact that we have always been a conscientious partner of the United States and in general of every country that respects our country,” Papuashvili stated.