U.S. Embassy in Georgia

Ambassador Kelly Degnan: As we said during Secretary Pompeo’s visit, we would have liked to see all duly elected members of parliament attend today’s opening, so that they could fight for the change they want to see from within the parliament, rather than in the streets. The very important work that the party leaders did over the last six weeks is designed to improve Georgia’s election system—to get rid of some of the tactics that have been a problem in elections for many years. That was very good work, and they did it together despite there being deep differences, and that’s what we would like to see happen within parliament. Thank you.