The United States will have to radically reconsider relations with Georgia if the law on foreign agents comes into force there, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
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“We’ll see what the (Georgian) parliament does. If the bill passes, it will force us to fundamentally reconsider our relations with Georgia,” she said.
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According to Jean-Pierre, Washington expects Georgian President Salome Zurabishvilina to veto the law. However, it remains unclear whether parliament will override the veto, she added.
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Earlier on Tuesday, the head of the State Department’s Sanctions Coordination Office, Jim O’Brien, said that Washington could impose sanctions against the Georgian authorities if the bill on foreign agents adopted by parliament does not change and the leadership continues to attack the EU and other partners. In turn, deputy press secretary of the department Vedant Patel said that Tbilisi should abandon the course chosen in the context of this law, since “the current approaches are not consistent with US values.”
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The Georgian Parliament today adopted the draft on foreign agents in the third and final reading, despite protests. Zurabishvili, who has repeatedly expressed support for the demonstrators, said she would veto the law. However, the presidential veto is more of a formal nature, since parliament needs a simple majority of votes to override it.
