By AFP

Georgia’s right-wing government said Thursday it hoped to “reset” relations with the United States now Donald Trump was in power, after the previous US administration imposed sanctions on the ex-Soviet country for democratic backsliding.

The Caucasus nation has been rocked by turmoil since last October, when the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in parliamentary elections decried by the pro-EU opposition as fraudulent.

The US State Department imposed sanctions on Georgian officials last year, citing the government in Tbilisi’s drift towards Russia and “violent” crackdown on protesters and dissent since the disputed vote.

“We are deeply committed to resetting our relations with the United States,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told a news conference.

“A lot will depend on the extent to which President Trump’s administration will be able to completely defeat the ‘Deep State’ in the United States. We are optimistic and ready to restart Georgian-American relations,” he said.

The ruling Georgian Dream party came to power in 2012 on a platform of joining the EU but has over the last three years intensified its anti-Western and anti-liberal positions, cracking down on civil society and LGBTQ rights.

Its billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili has repeatedly railed against what he calls a “global war party” that controls Western institutions and is seeking to drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.

Georgia’s government shelved EU membership talks until 2028 last November, prompting outrage from the opposition.

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