“We want to see the right to protest and freedom of expression to be protected in Georgia. That is the objective of those sanctions. I won’t comment on future sanctions,” stated Gareth Ward, the British Ambassador to Georgia.
The Ambassador was responding to a question about the possibility of sanctions being imposed on Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of Georgian Dream.
“We don’t comment in advance on sanctions. What do you know is that the UK did already announced sanctions relating to human rights violations on a number of Georgian officials. And the key thing is that we want to see the right to protest and freedom of expression to be protected in Georgia. That is the objective of those sanctions. I won’t comment on future sanctions,” Ambassador Ward emphasized.
The British Ambassador stated that Britain may consider resuming suspended programs once Georgia’s democratic environment improves.
“Our foreign secretary has been very clear. He said that we would stop funding programs in support of the Georgian government and that we would restrict our defense and political contacts until democratic backsliding is stopped in Georgia. So that’s the position that we announced in December, and that remains our position.
As I’ve mentioned, we have restricted our programming work and that means that there are some programs that we are no longer funding. This is a measure that we have taken until we see improvements in the democratic environment in Georgia. And when those improvements come, that’s when we will be able to think about re-engaging on our programs.
I’m not going to speculate on Georgian Dream’s motivations. All I can say is that the UK wants Georgia to stay on the Euro-Atlantic path,” he added.
