Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili’s official visit to the United States, scheduled for this autumn, won’t take place, the Rustavi 2 broadcaster reported on Thursday citing its sources.
According to the report, the visit, which had been prepared since this March by the Georgian Foreign Ministry, is canceled due to unknown reasons. The fact that the visit had been planned was confirmed by former Presidential Administration Chief Lasha Zhvania, who stepped down on Wednesday.
“In March we held talks that the visit will be held by autumn – by late September-early October,” Zhvania told reporters. Neither the Foreign Ministry nor the presidential administration have commented on the visit.
Earlier, Zourabichvili told VOA’s Georgian Service in an interview in Tbilisi published on Wednesday that the construction of US military base in Georgia is inadvisable and may be viewed as a provocation. According to Zourabichvili, a former French diplomat who became Georgia’s first woman president in December 2018, Georgia needs to deepen ties with Washington, but should not take any steps, which would provoke other countries. This Zourabichvili’s statement has been condemned by the Georgian opposition, which threatened to impeach the president.