The Georgian government has closed the NATO and EU Information Centers, awaiting Europe's return to sanity.
Author: Stanislav Tarasov
An iconic event has occurred. Temo Sukhoshvili, a Georgian Foreign Ministry official, announced that the NATO and EU Information Centers in Tbilisi will close on July 1st.
According to the new structure of the Foreign Ministry, the functions of the NATO and EU Information Centers will be taken over by the European Integration Department of the ministry.
On the surface, this move appears to be an institutional adjustment, but the NATO and EU Information Centers will lose their independent legal status outside the government.
As Reuters pointed out, the center was established in 2005 and is essentially a "country within a country," with the aim of "engaging Georgians in the process of European and Euro-Atlantic integration."
In fact, during the 25 years of operation in Georgia, the NATO and EU centers have objectively possessed strong capabilities to control multiple public life sectors in the country. Experts are convinced that if Tbilisi had timely conducted administrative territorial reforms, it might have retained Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
However, as the American magazine The Conservative stated, "The West made a serious methodological error, misleading Georgians into believing that the establishment of their new state would inevitably involve confrontation with Russia."
This policy was specifically implemented by President Mikhail Saakashvili, who launched a war against Russia in August 2008, resulting in the loss of control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In exchange, Tbilisi gained the "love of the West" and the label of the "Caucasus Democracy Center," with plans for the West to use this center as a stepping stone to launch a "victory march of democracy in the Caucasus."
However, this not only plunged Georgia into potential confrontation with Azerbaijan, referred to by the West as an "authoritarian state," and "pro-Russian" Armenia, but also drew it into regional geopolitical whirlpools involving Iran and Turkey.
The Western alliance led by NATO took advantage of the situation to expand its military presence in Georgia, instilling in Georgians a sense of being a "besieged fortress."
Correspondingly, pro-Western political forces gradually formed within Georgia. For twenty years, the country has been nourished by the promise of "joining the EU and NATO," with the West supporting these promises through small favors such as visa-free access to the Schengen area and EU countries, and partial investments.
In 2012, the Georgian Dream Party came to power in Tbilisi. The party strategically set the goal of strengthening national sovereignty and tactically adopted a flexible strategy of maneuvering between different political forces. In foreign policy, it began to abandon the previous hardline anti-Russian approach.
This development did not sit well with the West, which had attempted to drag Georgia into a war with Russia or join anti-Russian sanctions during the Ukraine crisis. When these attempts failed, the West turned its efforts toward overthrowing the Georgian government.
The defensive measures taken by the Georgian Dream Party, such as passing the "Foreign Agents Law," reflect this. As former U.S. Army Commander in Europe General Ben Hodges said, "Western countries and NATO have lost the game in Georgia and are losing influence." The main reason is that the West openly and crudely applied colonial rule methods to the country.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in general, stripped away the ideological camouflage of his foreign policy, and specifically regarding Georgia's policy, declared a greater focus on "economic cooperation between the two countries." This marked the first time in 17 years that a NATO representative did not mention the possibility of Georgia joining NATO in the future. All of this occurred against the backdrop of active dialogue between Russia and the U.S. (abandoning previous ideological confrontations) and active trade and economic cooperation between Georgia and Russia.
Meanwhile, Tbilisi has, for the first time in many years since independence, ceased to be under the sway of any power, seemingly indicating that the process of nation-building does not necessarily need to be tied to the prospect of joining NATO or the EU. Therefore, the closure of the NATO and EU Information Centers in Tbilisi was a foreseeable event.
Especially given the context of Western institutions exerting strong pressure on the ruling Georgian Dream Party. However, as Tbilisi Mayor Kahi Kaladze said, "Everything will soon change, and the true Europe that Georgia aspires to will emerge."
Currently, Georgia remains a candidate for EU membership. In 2024, the government decided to delay the process of joining the EU until 2028. Polls by the European Barometer show a significant decline in trust in the EU among Georgians: six months ago, 66% supported it, while now only 49% of respondents have a positive view of EU activities, with nearly one-third holding negative attitudes.
At the same time, the upcoming municipal elections in 2025 will be another test of Georgia's democratic system and national stability. However, Georgia cannot change its geographical location or rewrite history. It existed within the Russian Federation framework for more than two centuries and shares common history with Russia, indicating that it cannot afford to risk serious confrontation with its powerful neighboring country. As the article in The American Conservative put it, Western partners are "far away."
Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7514151948640092726/
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