Georgia must avoid being drawn into global conflicts, ruling party MP

Georgia must maintain a cautious foreign policy stance to avoid being pulled into confrontations between major global powers, Irakli Kadagishvili, chair of parliament’s Regional Policy and Self-Government Committee, said on Wednesday. 

Speaking about ongoing international and regional developments, Kadagishvili said Georgia’s role in current geopolitical rivalries was limited and that any attempt to actively position itself in such conflicts would not influence their outcome. He warned, however, that miscalculations could expose the country to serious risks.

“In this transitional period, we hold exactly the position we should,” he said. “There are such large players confronting each other that Georgia’s positioning changes nothing in this big game. But incorrect positioning, under these turbulent conditions, could draw us in and turn us into a scapegoat.”

Kadagishvili said it would have been a mistake for Georgia to follow political pressure from abroad, particularly after the start of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine. He argued that calls for Georgia to impose sanctions on Russia or become more directly involved would have amounted to open confrontation.

According to him, any such move would have made a Russian response inevitable. He said that while opening a “second front” in the Caucasus might have served the interests of some external actors by creating difficulties for Moscow, the consequences for Georgia would have been devastating.

“For Georgia, this would have meant a political, economic, social and overall humanitarian catastrophe,” he said, drawing comparisons with the scale of destruction seen in Ukraine. He added that Ukraine, despite being a much larger country with greater economic potential and a larger population, and despite bordering NATO countries, had still suffered severe damage.

Kadagishvili also commented on broader shifts in international politics, pointing to what he described as significant changes in the Euro-Atlantic space. He said one of the most notable developments had been a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, shortly after Trump’s return to office.

He argued that both public and non-public understandings reached at that meeting had influenced developments over the past year, including the course of the war in Ukraine, wider global politics and relations with Europe.