Mr. Giorgi Gvalia is Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of Politics and International Relations at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. In the period 2013-2021, he held the position of dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Ilia State University. His academic interests include theories of international relations, small states in international relations, Europeanization in the post-Soviet space, and post-Soviet politics and international relations. His publications have appeared in various prestigious international publications in the field of security studies, foreign policy analysis and East European politics. His current research focuses on democracy promotion in the EU, Georgia’s foreign policy and security challenges in the wider Black Sea region. In addition to academic positions, Giorgi Gvalia has also worked at several state and non-state institutions, including the Georgian Association for Public Opinion Research (President), the National Security Council of Georgia (Senior Advisor), and the Georgian Foundations for Strategic and International Studies (Researcher ).K.P.: The Republic of Georgia is facing a turbulent political period. Can Tbilisi stay on its path to becoming a member of NATO and the European Union?Giorgi Gvalia: Yes, that’s a good question. Yes. Categorical. We have a rather difficult situation at the moment in the country. And these difficulties are primarily related to the countries’ foreign policy preferences or orientation. You are probably well aware that Georgia has been one of the most pro-European countries in the EU’s eastern neighborhood, perhaps after the Baltic states. Georgia has been considered one of the most pro-European countries and this kind of image of Georgia being very pro-European has been special since the Rose Revolution of 2003. Since then Georgia has positioned itself as an ally of the West, within the former union of post-Soviet states and we had tangible achievements in our relations with the EU, NATO, the United States, with other European countries. So, in general, there was kind of this national agreement at the level of the population and at the level of the political elite that Georgia’s future is in Europe. For Europe to be like our home and we were taken, let’s say from our natural place because of the Soviet occupation and now it’s time to restore this injustice and now we should go back. The turnout started to change a bit after a new government, the existing government came to power. At first, the government claimed that they were pursuing so-called complementarity in foreign policy.

Meaning that they were openly saying that we have to balance our foreign policy priorities and that on the one hand we have to try to normalize relations with Russia, but at the same time we should keep this way of directing Western policy, but I think , and most Georgia observers would say that these approaches, while they might sound very pragmatic, one this approach is prone to failure, you know, because you can’t balance these two goals. I mean you can’t. Because we have quite a rich experience of our relations with Russia, even during Shevardnadze’s time. He was also trying to pursue this foreign policy balancing act, but was unable to do so. Even Sakashvilli, when he came to power after the rose revolution, the first months of his presidency appeared normalizing relations with Russia, but then we realized that only by bringing these two goals together or to have good relations with Russia, and we also want to become a NATO member. it’s just impossible because Russia won’t let you. You know because they won’t allow you to get closer to the EU and NATO and I think this government has tried to balance two objectives, which cannot be balanced, you know the rest and the situation has become much more difficult after the legality of Russia and are provoked well or are you kindly concerned because this war in Ukraine has made the situation much.