Georgia loses $95 million in aid from USA
The United States is suspending a $95 million aid programme to Georgia as Washington is reviewing cooperation over Tbilisi’s adoption of the law on foreign agents, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, Reuters reports.
Photo: flickr.com by Frank Miller, CC BY-SA 2.0
“The Georgian government’s anti-democratic actions and false statements are incompatible with membership norms in the EU and NATO,” Blinken stated and promised that Washington would continue to provide assistance that would help Georgian citizens.
Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream Party passed the law on foreign agents in the spring of this year, facing criticism from the US and EU. This law has the potential to strain Tbilisi’s relations with the West.
“This is, frankly, legislation that looks like it’s right out of the Kremlin’s playbook, a targeting of humanitarian organizations, NGOs, human rights defenders, journalists. And so this is something we’ll certainly be paying close attention to,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in late July.
US Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Uzra Zeya expressed concerns over Georgia’s actions undermining its Euro-Atlantic path, leading to the freezing of aid and postponement of military exercises.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili signed the law on foreign agents on June 3, citing it as a measure to protect Georgia from external interference.