PM Irakli Garibashvili met on November 6 with Tbilisi-based foreign diplomats and told them: “I don’t want you to even doubt our firm commitment to Euro-Atlantic integration.”

In his opening remarks the PM said that recent developments, involving sacking of Defense Minister Irakli Alasania and resignation of Foreign Minister and State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, are “purely domestic issues and they will not affect our foreign relations.”

He also spoke about decision of Alasania’s party, Free Democrats, to quit the Georgian Dream ruling coalition and said that this party’s “presence in the opposition will make Georgia’s democracy even stronger.”

“Georgian nation deserves a political opposition that is willing to work constructively with the government, to move this country forward and to continue our path to the Euro-Atlantic integration,” he said. “I hope that once the dust settles, they will engage with the government in a constructive manner; they are good and decent people, who have much to offer to their country.”

He then criticized Irakli Alasania for, as he put it, “irresponsible” public response to investigation and arrest of several MoD and general staff officials on misspending charges on October 28. Then defense minister Alasania said that the arrests were “politically motivated” and was an “attack on Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic choice.”

“Unfortunately public response from Irakli Alasania to the investigation process was irresponsible and it damaged the country’s image. A member of the government should not be making accusation that seeks to undermine our relations with the European and Euro-Atlantic allies for [his] own political reasons,” 

Earlier on November 6, speaking at a meeting with his cabinet members, PM Garibashvili slammed Alasania and called him “adventurer, stupid and ambitious.”

Before the meeting with the PM, French ambassador to Georgia, Renaud Salins, told journalists that “what matters to us is a sense of continuity, meaning institutional continuity, and continuity in the international commitments of Georgia.”

He also said that there is “a certain degree of suspicion that prosecutor’s office is being used for political purposes.”

“These suspicions, maybe they are wrong, but they have to be dispelled,” the French ambassador said.

The U.S. Department of State noted with “concern” dismissal of Irakli Alasania from the defense minister’ post and called on the Georgian authorities “to take steps to dispel perceptions that the judicial system is being used for political purposes.”