RE: Article in Daily Telegraph6 Mar 2020 12:32
Despite constant Russian provocation and aggression (Russian troops continue to illegally occupy over 20% of Georgia’s territory today following the brief war in 2008), the current Georgian government has built a miracle. GNI per capita is the highest in the region, it has a free, vibrant multi-party democracy (the electoral system is mixed, like the Scottish Parliament system), it is by far the “Most Free” country in the region according to Freedom House’s annual research (it scores more than double Turkey’s score on Freedom metrics), and perhaps most impressively the country sits in a lofty 7th place globally in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” rankings - better than the UK and Australia, and above 26 of the 27 EU Member States.
The country has achieved this with policies that prioritise a competitive economy, commitment to free markets and investment, and low tax and regulatory burdens. Special Economic Zones have been touted in Georgia, just as they have in post-Brexit Britain, with a similar goal. BP is one of several UK firms that has benefited from the open Georgian economy: it has operated in the country since the mid-90s, building the South Caucasus Pipeline and operating in the Southern Gas Corridor, the key East-West transit route that traverses Georgia.
A key difference of course, is that while the UK archipelago has the good fortune to be peaceful and far removed from aggressive autocracies, Georgia sits in one of the most volatile and over-militarised regions in the world. The Georgian Dream government has recognized that unfortunate reality, and their lowering of tensions with Moscow has not only allowed Georgia’s economic miracle to continue, but has brought stability to a region that otherwise could become a flashpoint of East-West tensions, as it has been in the past.
The Department for International Trade has already signed a trade continuity and strategic cooperation agreement, ensuring that UK-Georgian ties will not be disrupted post-Brexit: but we can and should do more. Ongoing Russian aggression must be met with resolve and support for the pro-Western government in Tbilisi. This is not theoretical: US and UK security and intelligence services recently revealed the existence of a massive Russian cyberattack focused on Georgia. Tbilisi’s goal of condemning aggression without being unnecessarily provocative is a difficult needle to thread and they deserve public political support as well as the kind of security support that revealed the existence of the cyberattack.
The world outside the EU is imperfect, but ‘Global Britain’ should be about strategic engagement with the world as we find it. It should mean a hard-headed recognition of strategic partner governments and then a commitment to support them. Georgia is the clear answer in the south Caucuses region.
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