Kyiv-Tbilisi contacts are ‘demonstration of strength’ by Ukraine, not normalisation, opposition

One of the leaders of the opposition Coalition for Change, Giga Lemonjava, on Friday claimed recent contacts between Ukrainian and Georgian officials did not represent a normalisation of relations, but rather what he described as “a demonstration of strength” by Ukraine.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Lemonjava said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was seeking to demonstrate regional leadership amid the ongoing war with Russia and show that countries including Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan had moved beyond Moscow’s sphere of influence.

He argued that dialogue between Kyiv and the Georgian authorities should be viewed in that context rather than as an improvement in bilateral relations.

Lemonjava also criticised the Georgian government’s standing within European institutions, claiming the Council of Europe was unlikely to take seriously the statements made by Georgia’s Foreign Minister, Maka Botchorishvili, during the organisation’s ministerial meeting in Chișinău this week.

“The Council of Europe is an international organisation oriented towards human rights, democracy and the rule of law, therefore naturally nobody there takes seriously the words of a representative of the Russian regime of Georgian Dream,” he said.

Lemonjava pointed to the situation surrounding Georgia’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as evidence of what he described as growing isolation of the Georgian authorities within European institutions.

The comments came as foreign ministers from 46 member states gathered in Chișinău on Friday for the annual meeting of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.