BEIJING: China is set to elevate its relations with Georgia to one of strategic partnership, President Xi Jinping said on Friday, declaring “unwavering” resolve to deepen ties with the former Soviet republic.

China has regarded Georgia as a good friend since they established diplomatic ties 31 years ago, Xi told Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on the sidelines of the Chengdu University Games in southwest China.

“No matter how the international situation changes, China is unwavering in its determination to develop relations with Georgia,” Chinese state media quoted Xi as saying.

“During your visit to China this time, the two sides will issue a joint statement announcing the establishment of a China-Georgia strategic partnership, raising the positioning of bilateral relations to a new level.” Georgia, like other former Soviet states Armenia and Azerbaijan, is on a strategic — and sometimes volatile — overland route between Europe and Asia, along which China aims to develop a “Belt and Road” network of trade and energy links.

Georgia has had fraught relations with China’s ally Russia since the 1990s when Russia backed separatists in two Georgian regions. Russia recognised the breakaway regions as independent after fighting a war with Georgia in 2008.

Days after Russian sent troops into Ukraine last year, Georgia applied for EU membership. Georgia has also sought to become a member of Nato.

In 2017, China signed a free trade agreement with Georgia that came into force in January 2018, after less than a year of negotiations.

Under the free trade regime, Georgia imposed zero tariffs on 96.6 per cent of imports from Chinese, and in return got zero Chinese tariffs on 93.8pc of its imports from Georgia.

Though the FTA helped two-way trade increase past the $1 billion threshold in 2018 from 2017, it has since remained range-bound between $1.1 billion and $1.5 billion.

China is Georgia’s top export destination, accounting for $736.8 million in goods sales last year, according to its National Statistics Office.

Copper ores and concentrates along with precious metal ores made up about 90pc of this.

Georgia has also benefited from investment and technical support from Chinese companies in road infrastructure and industrial projects.

In 2017, Georgia received $114 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), to finance a section of highway between Tbilisi, and the coastal city of Batumi. China set the AIIB up in 2016 as an alternative to the World Bank and other Western-led multilateral lenders.

Georgia is also host to part of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline connecting Azerbaijan’s Caspian gas fields to Turkiye and Europe. It received $600 million in financing from the AIIB in 2016.

Georgia is a transcontinental country at the intersection of eastern Europe and western Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the north and northeast, Turkiye to the southwest, Armenia to the south, and by Azerbaijan to the southeast.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2023