President Saakashvili, accompanied by a group of UNM lawmakers, is visiting the United State for the second time in less than a month to meet with, as he put it, “next generation of American leaders.”

On May 14 he met Republican Senator Marco Rubio in Washington, according to the Georgian President’s administration, which said of Senator Rubio that he “will be one of the presidential candidates in 2016”.

“During my previous visit I met current leadership of the U.S. administration. Now it is important to look at what happens in 2016 and see who the next generation of American leaders is. So during this visit… we will be meeting those from both the Republican and Democratic parties who are future leaders of America,” Saakashvili said.

He said President Putin’s Russia “is getting weaker” and “heading downward”, while the United States’ “role will further strengthen.”

“No matter how much some may try to talk us into going back under the control of weakening Russia, our relations with the United States has most of the perspective,” Saakashvili said.

In what appeared to be a reference to PM Ivanishvili’s remarks made at a news conference on May 14 that he was more preoccupied by internal affairs instead of focusing on foreign visits, Saakashvili said: “I am concerned that a vacuum has emerged in Georgia's international relations.”
 
PM Ivanishvili said that making foreign trips was not his focus, as there “is lots of work to be done here” within the country. “Foreign visits are not decisive [factor],” he said. “Saakashvili went to America and came back, so what? It has not changed anything. Now he is going to some five or six other countries. Let him say where is he going, for what purpose and what he is bringing back.”

Saakashvili said he was “concerned” that Georgian PM had “no serious bilateral visit” except of in neighboring countries.

“Such isolation is only in the interests of Putin,” Saakashvili said.

“Instead of being worried about why the President goes [to foreign visits], the Prime Minister should be concerned why he himself does not and cannot go [foreign visits] and as long as I am President I will do my best to help him to [arrange] visits,” he said.

“The government is actually in isolation, which is not good for our country,” Saakashvili added.