TBILISI, July 31 – The Georgian government has scored a major victory in its long-running Anaklia deep-sea port dispute, as the it wins an arbitration case, confirming it was in its right to terminate the project.
The ruling by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington dismissed claims filed by Bob Meijer and the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), confirming that responsibility for funding failures rested solely with the investor side and that the Georgian government lawfully terminated the contract.
Meijer had sought compensation exceeding USD 60 million but was ordered instead to pay Georgia approximately USD 6.5 million. Officials say this marks the second arbitration win after a separate Tribunal dismissed ADC’s earlier USD 1.5 billion claim and fined it EUR 650,000.
The Anaklia project, first launched in the early 2010s, has been promoted as a strategic initiative to turn Georgia into a regional hub along the transit corridor linking Asia and Europe. Unlike existing ports in Poti and Batumi, Anaklia is designed to accommodate the largest container vessels and include a special economic zone, offering significant promise for enhancing cargo flow and reducing reliance on Russian-controlled routes.
Former consortium leaders, including banker Mamuka Khazaradze and his associate Badri Japaridze, had accused the government of sabotaging the project. Those charges were rejected in arbitration, with the tribunal ruling that ADC and its investors failed to meet financing obligations.
Despite the legal outcome, the project faces ongoing uncertainty. A Chinese-Singaporean consortium recently replaced ADC as the state’s chosen private partner, and construction plans remain unfinalized. While supporters say the government is salvaging a stranded project and pursuing a new path forward, critics argue that earlier political interference contributed to the project’s collapse.
