The Georgian Dream visits Beijing while clash over Europe unfolds in Tbilisi

A delegation of MPs from the ruling party visiting the People's Republic of China after the signing of the strategic partnership agreement. The opposition is accusing: they are looking for a shore outside the West, to weaken the European integration process.

Tbilisi (AsiaNews) - The ongoing visit to China of a single-party parliamentary delegation, led by the leader of the Georgian Dream, Iraklij Kobakhidze, has sparked many protests among Georgia's opposition. For some it was "a trip planned by Moscow", while members of the majority accuse their opponents of naivety and "ignorance of the elementary principles of political analysis".

Kobakhidze himself considers the criticisms of his opponents "speculations to which it is not worth reacting". Speaking to the journalists who accompanied the delegation, he wanted to focus on something else, declaring that "last year was a historic year for the deepening of relations between China and Georgia" and recalling the signing of the strategic partnership agreement , for the verification of which a visit to Beijing was organised.

Other party representatives reacted to the accusations, such as the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Nikoloz Samkharadze, who does not realize how the trip could be connected to Russia, especially since “China supports the territorial integrity of Georgia ; it is clear that the opposition does not understand anything about politics and in this way they do not offend us, but China, one of the most important countries in the world".

The deputy speaker of the Tbilisi parliament, Gija Volskij, recalled that "the US and the EU also deal with China, Russia maintains very specific relations with Beijing, completely different from ours".

The secretary of one of the opposition parties Lelo, Grigol Gegelja, tries to explain the reasons for the resentful reactions to the trip to China: “Trade relations are fine with any country except the Russian Federation, and the autocracies affiliated to it, but what what we see is rather a political revenge against the West”, to demonstrate that Georgia has political supports that diverge from the geopolitical axis and from the foreign interests of America and Europe.

Analyzing the text of the partnership agreement with China, secretly prepared by the Georgian Dream, the opponents did not find any expression supporting "the restoration of territorial integrity and de-occupation of the whole of Georgia", as the leader notes of the parliamentary group of the National Movement, Tinatin Bokučava. In her opinion, the fact that the first visit of the year is aimed at Beijing, and not Brussels, is "the first effect of Bidzina Ivanišvili's return to politics, to correct the pro-Western course of the country".

Many observers connect the trip to China with the one that Kobakhidze made in early December to Budapest, a few days before Brussels' decision to grant Georgia EU candidate status. On that occasion, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban intervened against Ukraine's European integration.

The director of the "Idea Civile" association, Tina Khidašeli, declares herself worried about the fact that the Georgian Dream makes friends only with Putin's friends, and underlines that "one party's parliamentary delegations are not created only by a democracy, towards a country where there is only one by definition communist".

In fact, the visit is not limited to Beijing, but continues to Shanghai, "where the headquarters of the BRICS are located, which our men in power prefer to NATO", adds Khidašeli, concluding that "Georgia must not become the fifth column of Moscow and Beijing within Europe”.

• Georgia
• Tbilisi
• China
• Beijing
• Georgian Dream
• Russia
• Europe
• European Union