Luke Coffey, Foreign Policy Center Director at Heritage Foundation, says that a new regional cooperation format proposed by Turkey, which may include Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia and Armenia, will be ‘terrible’ for Georgia and its foreign policy goals. 

After the second Karabakh War, back in December 2020, Ankara offered the new format.

Around the same time, Tehran also introduced a similar “3 + 3” model (i.e., the three South Caucasus countries, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan plus Russia, Turkey and Iran) that could serve as a new post-war regional integration platform.

“I think it is a terrible idea. I can not imagine how any grouping of the countries that include specifically Russia but also Iran can be good for a country like Georgia that sees its Euro-Atlantic aspirations as the main direction for its future,” Coffey told the Georgian Public Broadcaster. 

He believes, however, that Georgia should maintain good relations with its neighbours, like Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, while having positive ties with Russia, which occupies 20 percent of the Georgian territory, is unlikely for now.