(Reuters) – Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Kobakhidze called on Friday for a review of relations with the United States after Washington ordered punitive measures following the adoption of a law on “foreign agents”, the media reported. Russian news agencies.
“Georgian-American relations must be truly revised. We will discuss this with the ambassador,” Kobakhidze told journalists in Tbilisi, according to the RIA news agency.
The prime minister said relations with Washington had suffered under the previous US ambassador because of the diplomat’s call for rapid and radical policy changes.
The Georgian parliament, controlled by the prime minister’s Georgian Dream party, passed a law requiring organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence.
The legislation sparked large street protests.
Opponents of the bill, with its provisions for onerous disclosure requirements and hefty fines for violations, say it is heavy-handed and modeled after similar legislation in Russia.
The European Union says this law could compromise Georgia’s security.
attempt to join the 27-nation bloc.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week imposed visa restrictions and launched a review of bilateral cooperation. He said the law would “stifle the exercise of freedoms of association and expression” and hamper the work of independent media organizations.
Kobakhidze’s government says the bill will promote transparency and safeguard sovereignty against what it sees as an attempt by the West to drag Georgia into a confrontation with Russia.
Parliament voted to override a presidential veto of the bill, sparking some of the largest protests seen in the South Caucasus country since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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