Georgia won’t join ‘ideological war’ between Brussels and Washington, ruling party MP

Georgia will not allow its foreign policy to be dictated by Brussels and will not join what it considers an ideological confrontation between the EU and the United States, Levan Makhashvili, chairman of Parliament’s European Integration Committee, said on Tuesday.

Makhashvili was responding to European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos’s recent call for EU candidate countries to sever ties with US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. Kos said such a step was necessary for countries seeking EU membership.

Makhashvili said the statement was damaging to Georgia and argued that the country’s foreign policy should be determined in Tbilisi based solely on national interests.

“Georgia cannot afford to become involved in an ideological war between Brussels and Washington. Those telling us that the European path requires cutting ties with MAGA are asking us to turn our own security into a subject of someone else’s internal ideological confrontation,” he said.

He also criticised what he described as declining public support for European political leaders, saying recent opinion polls reflected growing dissatisfaction with policies focused on geopolitical confrontation, military spending and war rather than living standards, border security, energy security, employment and peace.

“The European family is a civilisational choice for us, but being European does not mean blindly following the mistakes that French, German or British voters are assessing through opinion polls,” Makhashvili said.

He argued that the EU’s approach risked alienating its own partners.

“If you no longer measure partnership by interests but by ideological purity, sooner or later you will declare even your own ally an enemy,” Makhashvili said, adding that tensions were already emerging within the transatlantic relationship in areas including trade, technology and geopolitical influence.

Makhashvili said Kos’s comments effectively placed the US political movement in the same category as Russia by describing both as opponents or enemies in the context of EU enlargement.

He called such an approach “a strategic political mistake” and said it was directly harmful to Georgia.

“Georgia’s position is clear: Georgia’s foreign policy will be decided in Tbilisi, not in the office of any commissioner, and it will be decided solely on the basis of the interests of the Georgian state and its people,” Makhashvili said.