TBILISI, September 1 – In an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump, Georgia’s president, Mikheil Kavelashvili, urged Washington to reset the strategic partnership between the two countries.
Kavelashvili praised Trump’s role in strengthening ties with Georgia’s neighbors, from helping broker peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan to renewing dialogue with Turkey and even with Russia. But he said Georgia had been left on the sidelines despite sharing the same values as Trump’s administration.
The letter accused what he called the “deep state,” through agencies like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, of seeking to destabilize Georgia by backing opposition movements. Kavelashvili argued that Georgians had already rejected several such attempts and remained united against external interference.
He expressed hope that the United States would be seen in Georgia not through this lens, but as a partner supporting peace, stability, and “traditional values.”
Kavelahvili was selected as president in December, 2024, by a college dominated by the Georgian Dream party, the first indirect presidential election after a constitutional change. Most political groups in the country reject his legitimacy due to alleged election fraud.
The open letter comes at a time when the ruling GD party’s relations with Western partners have been strained by a number of steps encroaching on civil society in recent years, including two new laws affecting non-governmental organizations, recently prompting the seizure of the bank accounts of several prominent groups.
