U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday, May 1 that Washington supports Georgia’s aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), ambitions that Moscow has repeatedly warned will only inflame tensions in the South Caucasus, RIA Novosti reported.
“We are very supportive of Georgia’s aspirations with respect to NATO and Europe,” Kerry said ahead of a meeting in Washington with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose decade in office has seen a severe deterioration in ties with Russia, culminating in the 2008 war over the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.
Kerry also praised “the democratic transition that has been taking place” in Georgia, a reference to the bitterly fought parliamentary election last October that Saakashvili’s political party lost to that of his chief rival, billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s current Prime Minister.
Under political reforms enacted during Saakashvili’s tenure, the Georgian Prime Minister now has more power than the president.
“The president engaged in the first peaceful election transfer of power, and I know is committed to continue the work for the democratic aspirations of the ‘Rose Revolution,’” Kerry said, referring to the massive 2003 street protests against an allegedly rigged election that swept Saakashvili into power.
