New Georgian party calls for abandoning NATO, EU ambitions

A newly formed political party in Georgia has called for the country to give up its long-standing ambition of joining NATO and the European Union, arguing that alignment with the West has brought instability rather than security.

The founding congress of the United Neutral Georgia party was held in Tbilisi, where delegates approved a platform centred on rejecting membership of the Western military and political blocs, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

The founding congress of the United Neutral Georgia party was held in Tbilisi, where delegates approved a platform centred on rejecting membership of Western political and military structures.

Speaking at the event, Vato Shakarishvili, head of the party’s political council, said Georgia’s political environment was being freed of what he described as Western agents, creating conditions for the country’s “free and peaceful development without Euro-illusions”.

“We did not fight for independence in Soviet times so that Brussels and Washington could take the place of Moscow,” Shakarishvili said, according to broadcaster Rustavi 2.

He criticised the inclusion of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions in the constitution, describing it as unacceptable that the country had been required to commit to joining NATO and the EU at the highest legal level.

Shakarishvili also accused NATO of contributing to insecurity in the region, saying the alliance had drawn Georgia and Ukraine into conflict, and claimed the United States was waging a proxy war against Russia at the expense of Ukrainian lives — an assertion strongly rejected by Washington.

The party is expected to soon raise the issue of holding a referendum to remove Article 78 of the Georgian constitution, which obliges all branches of government to take steps towards joining NATO and the European Union.

By Aghakazim Guliyev