A Georgian Parliamentary delegation arrived on the first official visit this year primarily holding the meetings on the Capitol Hill with the dozens of new members of the U.S. Congress between January 28 — February 1.
“Georgia enjoys unconditional support by the USA in all directions — territorial integrity, sovereignty, economic cooperation, Georgia-USA trade agreement etc.” commented the First Vice Speaker and lead of the delegation Tamar Chugoshvili about the U.S. Congress meetings. The Parliamentary Delegation also hold the meeting with the U.S. Congress Georgia Caucus Co-Chairs Congressmen Gerry Connolly and Adam Kinzinger, as well as the Deputy Chair of the House Democracy Partnership, Congressman David Price.
U.S. Congress Georgia Caucus Co-Chair Congressmen Gerry Connolly appraised Georgia as the model and mentor in the region: “We heard the information about progress of Georgia, democratic development and the processes in the region. We touched upon Armenia noting that Georgia is the model and the mentor in the region for the country like Armenia with clearly expressed aspiration to democratic development. We discussed strengthening of institutions, processes here and hoped that House Democracy project which is the group of the Congressmen committed to cooperate with the Parliamentary Republics in other parts of the world which want to build democratic institutions and we hope to visit Georgia later this year in spring. If we look at other European states we will see that democracy can be both robust and fragile and if there is not a fundamental commitment for democracy, democracy can deteriorate. So, we shall all speak about what we can do to prevent it in Georgia. I am glad to see that the Georgian Parliament understands it, they understand and respect the opposition and respect the election outcomes as it is the pillar of democratic institutions — to respect the outcomes even we do not like them. I have reinitiated the Bill to express support of Congress to Georgia, Georgian people and democratic processes in Georgia and I hope that the Bill will pass in the new Congress”.
Georgia Caucus Co-Chair Congressman Kinzinger underlined the highest bipartisan support to Georgia at the U.S. Congress: “As a new Chair of the Georgia Caucus, I am glad of the meeting. I have twice visited Georgia and will visit again. We well understand importance of friendship with Georgia. If we look at the processes in USA one may see the political division into Republicans and Democrats though we are consolidated in support to Georgia. We also understand the role Russia plays in the world and this role is not good. In Georgia’s perspective, Georgia has loyal friends among Democrats and Republicans”.
Congressman Price stressed the bipartisan support of the Congress on the Georgia Support Bill: “Both parties support Georgia. We hopefully later this year will visit Georgia and when in Tbilisi we will in details speak with our colleagues about the challenges. Georgia, as any democratic country encounters challenges though we believe that the opposition is heard, rule of law is respected and we also support judicial reform”.
Vice Speaker Tamar Chugoshvili summed up the week-long visit as timely for the new Congress and extremely positive with certain outcomes to be seen soon: “With the Congressmen, especially with the freshmen we discussed our challenges, namely: occupation of Georgian territories by Russia, grave humanitarian and human rights situation on occupied territories etc. We lack other mechanisms to address these problems other than the international support. If our partners refuse to support and strengthen us, Georgia will fail in countering with the strong and aggressive Russia. So, we tell about our problems and situation and why we need their support. We also speak about our future visions of development of the country, of our future economy as we see it, of our future democratic institutions etc… I give positive assessment to the meetings and hope that we will soon see the outcomes — Georgia supportive act to be passed in the Congress and the Senate, free trade with USA and many other steps to enhance our country… Georgia needs support of each and every of them — old Congressmen or freshmen and we need further cooperation with various Congressmen”.
The Parliamentary Delegation led by the First Vice Speaker Tamar Chugoshvili included MP Giorgi Volski and MP Tamar Khulrodava from majority, and MP Elene Khostharia from opposition.
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