(Bloomberg) -- Georgia’s parliamentary speaker said the US had withdrawn an invitation for the premier to attend a reception hosted by President Joe Biden, branding the move as interference in the Black Sea nation’s internal affairs.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who is leading the Georgian delegation of the UN General Assembly, had been due to take part in the traditional event for world leaders and senior officials to be held on Wednesday. But Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said that was no longer the case as the invitation had been rescinded by the Biden administration.
“Such behavior is not serious,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is another example of interference in the country’s domestic politics.”
With Georgia’s parliamentary elections due Oct. 26, relations between the two countries have become strained. Washington has criticized the ruling Georgian Dream party, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, for legislation the US and the European Union say resembles laws used by President Vladimir Putin to crush civil liberties in neighboring Russia.
The government in Tbilisi overrode a presidential veto and ignored warnings from Washington and Brussels that the “foreign agent” law, which targets non-governmental organizations and independent media receiving at least 20% of their income from abroad, endangered Georgia’s ambitions of joining the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Biden administration rescinded the invitation to the reception “due to increasing concerns about the Georgian government’s anti-democratic actions, disinformation, and negative rhetoric about the United States and the West,” the US Embassy in Georgia said in a statement.
The Georgian service of Voice of America first reported the news about the invitation’s withdrawal, citing unidentified people in the US. The outlet also reported last week that the US has drafted a sanctions package targeting Ivanishvili.
(Adds US Embassy comment in penultimate paragraph.)
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