Ian C. Kelly during the confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 20, 2015.
The Senate confirmed on June 24 a career diplomat Ian C. Kelly as the new U.S. ambassador to Georgia, replacing Richard Norland, who has served in Tbilisi since September, 2012.
Kelly, who has been in the foreign service for about 30 years, served as State Department spokesman in 2009-2010 and was the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE in 2010-2013. He also served as a co-chair of the Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution in December, 2012-September, 2013.
Speaking during a confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in late May, Ambassador Kelly reiterated U.S. support for Georgia’s EU and NATO integration aspirations and stated that “no third party” has the right to veto Georgia’s path.
“If confirmed, I look forward to working with the Georgian government and my embassy colleagues in realizing these aspirations. I will also urge all Georgians, who believe in their country’s Euro-Atlantic goals, to unite in supporting them and moving their country forward,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 20.
During the hearing, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy asked Kelly about how Georgia’s NATO membership can be achieved when its territories remain under Russian occupation and if he foresees a situation wherein NATO membership is granted to Georgia with a reservation that it does not apply to its occupied territories.
“You’ve put your finger on a really hard part of it, which is the fact that Russia occupies 20 percent of Georgia,” Kelly responded. “I think that we just have to stay focused on overall goal of supporting Georgia in becoming more interoperable with NATO, in reforming its defense institutions and we have multiple programs to do that, and also to be very steadfast in rejecting Russia’s illegal occupation of 20 percent of Georgia’s territory.”
But Senator Murphy pressed further on the issue by asking: “Does not it effectively result in Russia having a veto power over Georgia’s accession to NATO if we do not holdout a possibility that there is a pathway for them [Georgia] to join while the occupation continues?”
“I do not think that Russia or any other country has a veto on a country’s desire to join NATO,” the diplomat responded. “Obviously occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is a very difficult issue, but this overarching principle that all countries should be able to choose their own alliances and associations is something that has to be really defended and… the U.S. is doing everything it can to help Georgia realize its aspirations,”
Later during the hearing, when discussions turned to Russian propaganda, Ambassador Kelly noted that it is important to maintain a high level of public support towards Euro-Atlantic integration in Georgia.
In this context, he said that Russia is “ramping up their outreach to Georgia in terms of media” and “there are some NGOs that are active in Georgia.”
“We do not want to see that level [of public support to NATO integration] fall and we would be concerned about the messages that run contrary to our values that we are seeing in the Russian media and we need to ensure that Georgians appreciate that we stand behind them,” said Kelly, who noted for number of times the importance of “highlighting” to the Georgian public the assistance U.S. is providing to the country.
On issues related to democratic development, Kelly said during the hearing that Georgia has made “substantial progress toward becoming a fully democratic state”, but “more work needs to be done for Georgia to realize its goal of an environment fully conducive to political pluralism.”
“We will work with all parties in Georgia to help ensure the next parliamentary elections [in 2016] are the freest and fairest in Georgia’s history,” said Kelly.
“The U.S. has been a partner in this effort, with a robust assistance program to help Georgia strengthen accountable government, and consolidate its democratic institutions,” he added.
Asked by New Hampshire’s Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen about “concern” and “questions” over the rule of law, particularly regarding the cases of arrests of former government officials, Kelly responded: “Our top foreign policy priority for Georgia is helping it attain its aspirations join the Euro-Atlantic institutions and of course we would not want to see anything degrade that trajectory towards the Euro-Atlantic integration.”
“In our bilateral contacts – I know that Ambassador Norland has had many good consultations with the Georgian government – and we have stressed the importance of not even having a perception of any kind of political use of any kind of judicial levers,” he said.
“Having said that, we also have a very strong cooperation with Georgia to ensure that the judicial process in all cases is transparent and accountable and I think that Georgia has made great strides in ensuring the independence of the judiciary,” Kelly added.
On economic issues Kelly said that if Georgia’s quest to integrate with the West is to succeed, “it is critical that it improve the climate for trade and investment”, adding that it’s an area where both the government and opposition should be able to come together and cooperate.
“The United States appreciates Georgia’s growing role as a regional business, trade and logistics hub, and its contributions to the revitalization of East-West trade routes along the New Silk Road, connecting European and Asian markets,” he said, also noting the importance of taking advantage of a “tremendous opportunity” opened by the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU.
Ambassador Kelly’s previous assignments also include being the director of the Office of Russian Affairs at the Department of State in 2007-2009, public affairs adviser at the U.S. mission in NATO, press attaché at the U.S. embassies in Italy and Turkey.
As the director of Democratic Initiatives to the Newly Independent States at the State Department in 1994-1996, he was coordinating the activities of about dozen federal agencies involved in democracy programs in the former Soviet Union countries.
The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi said on June 25 that Ambassador Kelly plans to arrive in Tbilisi in September.
“Ambassador Norland extended his congratulations and began preparations for his departure from Georgia this summer,” it said.
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