Diplomacy should make a comeback and claim its rightful place which was taken by the twisted foreign aid practice, writes the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament on the social network X.

“For many years, foreign aid gradually turned from aid to capture, from charity to instrument, from plowshares into arms. While diplomacy presupposes compromise, search for common interests, and negotiations, the new ‘foreign aid’ sought to implant foreign interests into the recipient countries’ political parties and ‘civil societies’ as their own. The newly acquired ‘interests’ were projected as the interests of the people of the recipient country. Then, defending these implanted ‘interests’ in the name of the “people” became the foreign countries’ major instrument of influence.

Moreover, in this construct, ambassadors have become instructors for running the foreign countries, instead of building bridges between the countries and societies. This brought about the situation where ambassadors’ task was defined not as building trust with the local government but projecting power onto the local authorities. We remember this well from Soviet times: the position of the Communist Party Second Secretary, second in hierarchy in leadership of a Soviet republic, was reserved for a person sent from Moscow.

As Secretary Rubio has recently said, foreign policy should be about seeking common interests, not implementing divisive issues abroad. This rightful stance has long been lost in the wrongful practices of ‘foreign aid’.

Georgian government has been an outspoken critic of the twisted foreign aid approach. Now, the United States is leading the world to change this approach worldwide. It is staggering to see, day by day, the reveal of the extent of corruption and malpractice in the foreign aid universe.

Every donor country now is suspect in misusing foreign aid. Transparency about foreign funds has no alternative any more. Foreign governments should audit and report suspected and potential instances of twisted foreign aid practice.

As to Georgia, we will fulfill what we were elected for, and ensure the integrity of our democracy from undue foreign interference. In the nearest future, the Parliament will create a respective legislative basis for this task”, - writes Shalva Papuashvili.