In an open letter, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze addressed U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.

“A few weeks ago, we wrote to you regarding Georgian-American relations. This letter followed my public statements, in which I openly expressed Georgia’s readiness to renew the strategic partnership between Georgia and the United States from a clean slate, with a concrete roadmap. However, we have not received a response to our letter or public statements to date. Moreover, there has been no communication at the highest level between the Georgian and U.S. governments.

This silence is surprising to the Georgian people and government for several reasons:

First, for many years, Georgia has been the most reliable partner of the United States in our challenging region, which holds strategic importance for the U.S. Georgia has supported the United States in critical hotspots, including Iraq and Afghanistan, where Georgia contributed the largest number of soldiers per capita. Through participation in these missions alone, our small country saved the U.S. $2.5 billion, an amount far exceeding the actual assistance provided to Georgia from the U.S. budget. (We do not consider as genuine assistance the funds allocated from the U.S. budget to prop up the regime of former President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2008–2011, after Saakashvili initiated a war with Russia on the instructions of the ‘Deep State.’ Nor do we include funds channeled through the U.S. Embassy, USAID, NED, the Soros Foundation, and other entities to incite radicalism and hatred in Georgia, organize revolutions, tarnish the image of the Georgian Orthodox Church, promote religious extremism, weaken state institutions, produce gender and LGBT propaganda, or pursue similar objectives.) Given that Georgia has remained a true strategic partner of the United States for many years and continues to express readiness to restore this partnership, the silence from the new administration is surprising to both the Georgian government and its people.

According to international rankings, Georgia leads the region in democracy, rule of law, human rights, media freedom, judicial independence, institutional strength, and absence of corruption. Georgia’s leadership is also recognized by institutions in which your administration places particular trust. Considering this, and the fact that you actively engage in dialogue with several openly undemocratic and authoritarian states, your silence regarding Georgia lacks any logical explanation for us.

Equally important, the public rhetoric of our government and your administration reveals striking value and ideological alignment. We openly criticized the criminal activities of the ‘Deep State,’ USAID, NED, and related entities years before you made similar statements. We share identical assessments of the war in Ukraine, gender and LGBT propaganda, and many other issues. Against this backdrop of shared values and ideology, the Georgian people initially expected that Georgia would be among the first countries to receive special attention from your administration. You have expressed such interest in Romania and Germany, where undemocratic acts were carried out with the support of European bureaucracy. Yet, to the surprise of the Georgian people and government, you have not shown similar attention to Georgia. Moreover, incomprehensible sanctions against Georgia’s Vice Prime Minister and other government officials—who effectively thwarted an attempted revolution and violence planned by the Biden administration and financed by USAID—remain in place. Additionally, a few days ago, the U.S. Congress passed an absurd law, the so-called ‘Friend Act,’ which is steeped in hostility toward the Georgian people and their elected government. Given the meaning of the word ‘friend,’ this law evokes George Orwell’s model, where war is peace, and the enemy is a friend. We have grown accustomed to receiving absurd acts from various parliaments and would not have paid attention to the ‘Friend Act’ were it not for the perception that many attribute this act to your administration. This perception is reinforced by the absence of any critical statements from your administration regarding the ‘Friend Act.’ Consequently, this law undermines the trust of the Georgian people not only in Congress but also, unfortunately, in your administration, which Georgian society had viewed with different hopes.”

The Georgian PM added that the government “continues to express optimism in public statements that your administration will succeed in defeating the ‘Deep State,’ which will undoubtedly facilitate a reset of Georgian-American relations and the restoration of our strategic partnership. We hold high hopes for this outcome. Otherwise, the revolutionary scenario orchestrated under the Biden administration will persist. As a reminder, up to 250 individuals trained and funded by USAID and NED still gather daily on the central avenue of the capital, providing irrefutable evidence that the ‘Deep State’ has not abandoned its revolutionary plans.

As noted, despite mounting questions, we remain optimistic and hope that your confrontation with the ‘Deep State’ is sincere and will culminate in its defeat. The Georgian government patiently awaits this moment, which should serve as the foundation for resetting Georgian-American relations and restoring the strategic partnership between our countries.”