Georgia continues to express its readiness to restore strategic partnership with the US, the silence of the new administration is surprising both for the Georgian government and the Georgian people, writes the Prime Minister of Georgia in an open letter addressed to the US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance

"A few weeks ago, I addressed you in a letter concerning US-Georgia relations. That letter was preceded by my public statements, in which I openly expressed Georgia`s readiness to renew our strategic partnership with the US from a clean slate, guided by a specific roadmap. However, to this day, we have not received a response to our letter or to the public statements. No communication has taken place at the highest level between the Governments of Georgia and the US.

This silence is surprising to both the Georgian people and the Government of Georgia for several reasons:

First and foremost, for many years Georgia has been the most reliable partner of the US in our highly volatile region - one that holds strategic importance for the US.

Georgia has stood by the US in the world`s most critical hotspots, including Iraq and Afghanistan, where Georgia contributed the highest number of troops per capita.

Through participation in just these 2 missions, our small country helped the US save USD 2.5 billion - an amount that far exceeds the actual aid Georgia has received from the US budget. By "actual aid" we don`t mean funds allocated from the US budget in 2008–2011 to preserve the regime of former president Mikheil Saakashvili after he initiated a war with Russia at the behest of the Deep State.

Nor do we consider as "actual aid" the funds channeled through the US Embassy, USAID, NED, the Soros Foundation and other similar entities - funds that were used to incite radicalism and hatred, organize revolutions, undermine the image of the Georgian Orthodox Church, encourage religious extremism, weaken state institutions, promote gender and LGBT propaganda and pursue other such goals.) Considering that Georgia has long remained a true strategic partner to the US - and continues to express readiness to renew this partnership - the silence from the new administration is both unexpected and perplexing for the Government of Georgia and people alike", - writes Irakli Kobakhidze.