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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets leaders of two opposition parties, July 7, 2016. On the left side: MP Victor Dolidze of Free Democrats (FD); Irakli Alasania FD; MP Davit Bakradze of the United National Movement (UNM), and Giga Bokeria of UNM. Photo: Department of State
Before wrapping up his visit to Tbilisi, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met leaders of two opposition parties and then Parliament Speaker Davit Usupashvili on Thursday morning.
MP Davit Bakradze and Giga Bokeria of the United National Movement (UNM), as well as Irakli Alasania and MP Victor Dolidze of the Free Democrats (FD) participated in a meeting with the Secretary of State, who held talks with the Georgian leadership in Tbilisi on Wednesday.
“Two key issues were discussed with both of them having vital importance for our country,” UNM’s Davit Bakradze told journalists after the meeting. “The first, increasing Georgia’s self-defense capabilities; further support of the United States in this area is of course the best guarantee for the security of our country. The second, democracy and upcoming elections – the message from our American friends in this regard is absolutely clear, there should be free elections, including free media and in this context we had a very detailed conversation about Rustavi 2 and other media outlets; we spoke about the need to renounce violence and inadmissibility of those steps by the authorities, which question the right of voters’ free choice; we also spoke about problems like uninvestigated cases of violence. In both directions – security and democracy – our American partners’ messages are very clear and I hope that the Georgian authorities will heed these messages.”
“John Kerry is Georgia’s long-time friend and it was a very important visit with clear messages over our country’s two major issues – support for Georgia’s statehood and independence in the face of challenges posed by Russia and support for our democracy, as well as a clear message to [ex-PM Bidzina] Ivanishvili’s government that these are two interrelated issues. The task of our country is to strengthen and save our democracy with the help of our friends from threat posed by Ivanishvili’s regime and to strengthen our defense and security cooperation with our partners and NATO,” UNM’s Giga Bokeria said and added that the importance of free media was underlined in the context of the upcoming elections.
“We had a very positive, business-like and thorough discussion about Georgia’s future. The main goal for all of us to increase Georgia’s security and we spoke about defense cooperation, NATO summit in Warsaw. We also spoke about the need to make Georgia a real democracy; upcoming elections and developments in the broadcast media were also discussed. [The Secretary of State] expressed a very clear-cut position that the U.S. will remain supporter of the free media in Georgia and he has precise information about the situation in the Georgian media and I hope that his meetings with the Georgian authorities will yield positive results in this regard as well,” Irakli Alasania, leader of the FD party said, adding that Rustavi 2 TV case was also raised.
“We spoke much about the upcoming elections and electoral environment. Of course all the political forces are responsible for securing free and fair elections, but first of all this responsibility lies upon the authorities,” MP Victor Dolidze of the FD party said.
After meeting opposition leaders, the U.S. Secretary of State met Parliament Speaker Davit Usupashvili, who is one of the leaders of the Republican Party, which remains in the governing coalition with the ruling GDDG party, but will run independently in the October 8 parliamentary elections.
“It was a very important visit, which came just before the NATO summit in Warsaw. It stresses once again that Georgia and the United States are deepening strategic partnership. We spoke about those documents, which were signed yesterday, which will help to significantly increase Georgia’s security and self-defense capabilities. We spoke about importance of the U.S. assistance for Georgia in other areas as well – democracy, economy,” Usupashvili said, adding that importance of free and fair elections and electoral environment was also stressed.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili signed on July 6 a memorandum on “deepening the defense and security partnership”, envisaging U.S. support in areas ranging from defense acquisitions to enhanced information sharing.
On the upcoming parliamentary election, Kerry said on July 6 that it would be “another litmus test for Georgia”.
“Georgia has been a model of peaceful democratic change and of improving of electoral conditions for others in the region,” Kerry said after meeting with the Georgian PM.
“Free and fair elections will be an important step towards greater security, towards greater stability and towards prosperity for all of the people of this country. And in all of our conversations we talked about the need for an electoral environment that is free of intimidation and for continued progress to protect media freedom,” he said.
From Tbilisi the U.S. Secretary of State headed to Ukraine on Thursday morning from where he will travel to Warsaw for NATO summit on July 8-9.