The US House of Representatives has passed a bill calling for an investigation into Russian and Chinese influence in Georgia, including potential intelligence activities and the intersection of Moscow and Beijing’s interests. The document also proposes a review of Washington’s relations with Tbilisi. In Georgia, the response to the criticism has been an even greater shift in foreign policy cooperation in favor of Beijing.

The “Countering Chinese Influence in the Caucasus Act” was introduced in Congress back on February 24. The initiative, sponsored by Republican Joe Wilson and Democrat Steve Cohen, stipulates that within 180 days, the State Department, intelligence agencies, and the Pentagon will prepare a report on the penetration of Russian and Chinese intelligence and their associated assets into Georgia.

In addition, a five-year strategy must be developed regarding Tbilisi, which will determine whether to continue financial assistance to Georgia and how ready the country’s government is to expand economic and political cooperation with the US and Europe.

This could signal a shift from the previous logic of strategic partnership to a more selective model. The United States may review not its interest in Georgia as a country, but the format of engagement with the current authorities: which programs to maintain, which to restrict, whom to direct support to, and what conditions to set for further cooperation.

For many years, American aid has been an important tool for supporting Georgian state institutions, civil society, reforms, security, and Euro-Atlantic integration. If the new strategy concludes that the Georgian government is not demonstrating a readiness to engage with the US and Europe, it could lead to the reallocation or reduction of some programs.

Following the vote in the House of Representatives, bill co-sponsor Joe Wilson issued a sharp statement targeting Tbilisi’s ruling party:

“The illegitimate ‘Georgian Dream‘ regime is selling out the country to the Chinese Communist Party, war criminal Putin, and Iran—against the will of the Georgian people and the interests of the United States.”

However, the latest warning message from Washington was demonstratively ignored in Tbilisi. The very next day, during a morning briefing, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia had signed an agreement with the PRC, this time on a comprehensive strategic partnership.

According to the head of the cabinet, a total of 14 important international agreements have been signed between Georgia and China since 2023, with another six under final consideration. Kobakhidze also reported that trade turnover between the countries grew by 17% in 2024, by 21% in 2025, and by 45% in January-April 2026.

“Today, China ranks third among Georgia’s trading partners in terms of total trade volume and second in terms of exports of Georgian products.”

The Prime Minister added that following the establishment of the strategic partnership between the countries, a visa-free regime was introduced, direct flights expanded, and tourist flow increased.

One of Kobakhidze’s most telling statements was that China is “the only peaceful superpower on the planet”:

“It is particularly important that the Chinese side treats our country as an equal partner, which, against the backdrop of the shortcomings of global politics, is especially notable and valuable.”

Separately, the Prime Minister compared Georgia’s relations with China to its former strategic partnership with the US. According to him, what existed between Tbilisi and Washington for years was “a strategic partnership only on paper” and “lacked substance.”

“As for the strategic partnership with China, and now the comprehensive strategic partnership, this is not a partnership on paper; it has concrete substance and concrete results.”

Kobakhidze accused critics of Georgia’s rapprochement with the PRC of double standards. According to him, the US administration itself seeks to deepen relations with Beijing, and therefore cannot “objectively criticize” Tbilisi for pursuing a similar course: “That would be illogical.”

Georgia began its rapprochement with China even before the current crisis in relations with the West. In January 2018, a free trade agreement came into force, covering nearly 95% of Georgian exports. In 2023, the parties announced a strategic partnership. Following this, cooperation was expanded in trade, logistics, tourism, aviation, education, and infrastructure.

A special place on the Georgian-Chinese agenda is occupied by the Middle Corridor—a transport route designed to connect the PRC and Europe via Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

According to Kobakhidze, in January-August 2025, the number of containers transported along the Middle Corridor grew by 71%, while the volume of cargo transported in 2024 was 15 times higher than the previous year’s figure.

The Chinese vector has gradually expanded to other areas as well. In April 2026, during a visit to the PRC, Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili discussed the possibility of oil and gas extraction in Georgia with representatives of Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation and China ZhenHua Oil.

However, critics are concerned about more than just China’s economic or infrastructural presence. According to them, Beijing is strengthening its political, ideological, and even media influence in Tbilisi. One of the latest examples is the situation with the Obieqtivi TV channel. According to data from the Media Development Foundation (MDF), in the second quarter of 2025, the television company received funds from the Chinese Embassy for “broadcasting placement.”

Irakli Tsilikishvili, chairman of Obieqtivi’s board of directors, confirmed that the funds were used to produce several 50-minute episodes of the program “Chinese Panorama.” The show airs in a talk-show format against the backdrop of a Chinese flag and provides positive coverage of the PRC’s economy, politics, and its role in world events.

In early June, America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio stated that the US has serious concerns regarding the growing Chinese influence in Georgia. During a House hearing, Congressman Wilson asked the Secretary of State how he assessed the “rapid radicalization” of Tbilisi’s ruling “Georgian Dream” party, particularly its support for the Chinese Communist Party. In response, Rubio expressed hope that the US would see “a change in Georgia’s current trajectory.”

Shortly thereafter, Prime Minister Kobakhidze stated that “Georgia is not a schoolboy who can be held back for a second year and told to improve.” However, he assured that the authorities want to resume the strategic partnership with Washington through some kind of new “roadmap.”

Critics of the Georgian government do not believe the statements about wanting to reset relations with the US. The opposition is convinced that the government is effectively trying to replace its strategic partnership with the West with rapprochement with China. According to Grigol Gegelia, a member of the “Lelo – Strong Georgia” party, such a substitution is “an _expression_ of the deplorable collapse” that the ruling party has experienced in its relations with the US and the EU.

“Today, the de facto prime minister has already openly and publicly declared an attempt to alter the main trajectory of Georgia’s foreign policy development and has presented China as our main strategic partner.”

Gegelia recalled that the PRC opposes NATO expansion, which contradicts Georgia’s key foreign policy goals enshrined in the country’s Constitution. Furthermore, according to the opposition politician, while the strategic partnership document mentions the “One China” principle, it makes no mention of supporting Georgia’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.

Notably, about a week ago, the UN General Assembly adopted a new resolution on internally displaced persons from occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The document was supported by 107 states, including the US and other Western partners of Tbilisi, while China abstained.

Journalists asked Prime Minister Kobakhidze to comment on Beijing’s decision against the backdrop of the strategic rapprochement between the two countries. The politician stated that he “respects China’s arguments” regarding its refusal to vote in favor of the resolution for Georgia. According to the Prime Minister, the PRC has “its own specific reasons,” and he does not wish to delve into them.

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On June 1, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev posted a framed order President Donald Trump gave him waiving Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. Essentially, Trump’s waiver allows Azerbaijan to purchase American weaponry.

In 1992, Congress passed the Freedom Support Act to help the newly independent states that emerged from the Soviet Union’s collapse build their capacity and transition to democracy. At the time, Azerbaijani forces were leading pogroms against Armenians across Azerbaijan and seeking to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous Armenian region that Josef Stalin had assigned to Azerbaijan. The Senate wrote into the law a provision that banned U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan but enabled a presidential waiver.

For much of its first decade, Section 907 remained in force, and Azerbaijan received little direct support. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush issued an ultimatum: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” he told a Joint Session of Congress. Heydar Aliyev, the former Soviet KGB officer and Central Committee member who had taken the reins of power in Azerbaijan in a slow-motion coup against the backdrop of outrage he incited after false rumors of a “genocide” in the tiny village of Khojaly, was savvy. He told Bush he stood with him, then lobbied for a waiver to Section 907. Behind the scenes, for anyone dedicated enough to follow the money, Aliyev was equally aligned with Russia and Iran. When Heydar died and left power to his son Ilham, the younger Aliyev kept the two-faced policy.

The sine qua non of the waiver was the State Department’s certification that Azerbaijan would not use its weaponry against Armenia. On Sept. 14, 2023, Yuri Kim, the acting assistant secretary of state, testified in Congress that the United States would not tolerate any Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh. Just five days later, Azerbaijani forces stormed into the region, dynamiting churches, sandblasting ancient Armenian inscriptions, bulldozing graveyards, beheading old men on video, and ethnically cleansing 120,000 Armenians. The State Department should have been embarrassed: Ilham Aliyev deliberately humiliated it. Trump later took to TruthSocial to declare, “Kamala Harris did NOTHING as 120,000 Armenian Christians were horrifically persecuted and forcibly displaced in Artsakh.” He promised to “protect persecuted Christians,” “stop the violence and ethnic cleansing,” and restore peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Trump has advanced the peace process, and on Aug. 8, 2025, he invited Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the White House to sign a peace agreement. Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani Army continues to occupy almost 100 square miles of undisputed Armenian land. On May 26, 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefly visited Yerevan to discuss Trump’s peace corridor connecting two parts of Azerbaijan through southern Armenia.

The question Congress should ask, and Trump and Rubio should answer, is this: If the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace agreement is as water-tight and complete as they claim, why does Azerbaijan need advanced American weaponry? Who would Aliyev use it against? The occupation of Armenian land provides a strong hint. The danger is if Aliyev humiliated the State Department once, why would he not do so twice, if only to posture before his domestic audience?

Perhaps Rubio and Azerbaijan’s partisans might whisper about how Azerbaijan needs weapons to fight Iran. But this, too, does not pass the smell test. For all its talk about the necessity of a corridor across Armenia, Azerbaijan has already built a corridor through Iran through which it directs its trade. Under Aliyev’s stewardship, Azerbaijan’s trade with the Islamic Republic has surpassed Armenia’s trade with Iran. Nor does Azerbaijan need the weaponry to counter Russia. After all, Aliyev’s policy toward Russia revolves around helping the Kremlin evade sanctions, not holding it to account for Ukraine.

Something is amiss in the Caucasus. Countries committed to peace and tolerance neither occupy their neighbor nor ethnically cleanse Christian minorities. Countries that have America’s back do not trade with Iran or launder money for Russia. Make no mistake: By waiving 907, Trump and Rubio are not protecting Christians. They are repeating the worst mistakes of President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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