Senator Kerry: Government Interested in Reforms

John Kerry, a Democratic Senator, who paid a brief visit to Tbilisi on December 13, said he was confident that the Georgian government was committed to continuing democratic reforms in the country.
 
Senator Kerry, who will take over Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee chairmanship from Vice President-elect Joe Bidden in January, said there was “a lot of progress” in Georgia “that the people of Georgia should be very proud.”

“I am confident that the current government is very interested in continuing that progress and in undertaking further reforms and we look forward to working with them,” he said at a news conference held shortly before departure from Tbilisi.

He also said it was “important to continue the reform process” and added that President Saakashvili said to him during the meeting that he also believed that it was important to continue reforms.
 
“Obviously there is progress to be made in the issue of electoral reform and election process, but people are working on that; let me say at the same time that we have to make the progress in the United States and in our national elections,” Kerry said.
 
“I think the media needs to continue to be as open and as free as it is becoming; I think the progress has been made there, but I think most people would agree that more progress can be made and is being made,” he continued. “So I think that really there is lot that is taking place in terms of transformation; there is more yet to be done and it is important for all of us to have transparency in the decision-making and the accountability with the public and that’s what elections are for and you’ve just had an election.”

Before meeting with President Saakashvili, the U.S. Senator met with some opposition leaders, involving Davit Usupashvili, the leader of Republican Party – which has an alliance with the New Rights Party; Nino Burjanadze, the former parliamentary speaker; Levan Gachechiladze, a former opposition presidential candidate and MP Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of Christian-Democratic Party.

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