TBILISI, September 29 – Georgia heads into October’s local elections amid sharp criticism of its foreign policy, with former diplomat Nata Sabanadze warning that the country has become a “hollow shell” on the international stage.
Sabanadze, Georgia’s former ambassador to the European Union and now a senior fellow at Chatham House, told Interpressnews that President Mikheil Kavelashvili’s recent appearance at the United Nations General Assembly only underscored the absence of strategy. “He was a portrait of a country with only the trappings of foreign policy, emptied of substance,” she said, adding bluntly: “No one listens to him. Not Washington, not Brussels, not even Tbilisi.”
She argued that under the ruling Georgian Dream, the Foreign Ministry has turned into “a ministry of demarches,” summoning ambassadors for protests rather than building partnerships. The EU, she said, is painted at home as a conspirator intent on regime change, while Georgia drifts further from integration.
By contrast, Sabanadze pointed to how other post-Soviet states have seized opportunities created by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Azerbaijan, she noted, regained full control over Nagorno-Karabakh and strengthened ties with both the United States and China. Armenia, despite defeat, has reduced its dependence on Moscow by opening channels with Turkey, India, and the EU. Even small states, she said, are practicing “multi-dependency” diplomacy to safeguard independence.
Georgia, meanwhile, has lost momentum. “We have no strategic relationship left with the United States, we are out of the EU’s enlargement picture, NATO barely remembers us,” Sabanadze said. Beijing may receive praise from the government in Tbilisi, but there is little investment or diplomatic backing in return. The only recognition the ruling party can point to, she quipped, comes from Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
According to Sabanadze, Georgia’s value to the EU was always tied to its democratic credentials. By undermining them, she said, the government has erased the country from the map of serious international players. “If ever Georgia has been directionless, it is today. Globally, opportunities opened up. Georgian Dream made sure not to use them.”
