Georgian PM: We Have Established Contacts with Trump Administration

Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said at his cabinet meeting on December 29 that Georgia has established contacts with the new US administration.

“We strengthen relations with our allies on a daily basis, including with our major strategic partner, the United States of America. I would like to note that the first contacts have been established with the new US administration,” Kvirikashvili explained.

Kvirikashvili expressed hope that cooperation between Georgia and the United States would further be developed. “In the future, we expect to deepen our cooperation within the Charter on Strategic Partnership. It is also important that in 2016 we signed the Memorandum on Deepening the Defense and Security Partnership between the United States of America and Georgia, and of course, we will continue our efforts in implementing this memorandum,” Kvirikashvili said.

A day earlier, at a meeting with media representatives, Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze announced that he had a telephone conversation with Michael Flynn, the nominee for the role of the national security advisor in the new administration. “We spoke on [the current state of] our strategic cooperation and the future of our cooperation. Readiness was expressed with respect to cooperation of the incoming administration and the president-elect with Georgia,” Janelidze explained.

“I would like to assure you, that Georgia’s relations with the new administration will be as active, as we had with previous administrations and we will do everything for that,” Janelidze added.

Janelidze spoke on the matter again at his December 29 press briefing. “I had a telephone conversation with the nominee for the role of the national security advisor, where readiness for continuation of our strategic cooperation was reiterated and we will have a meeting at earliest possibility,” Janelidze noted.