Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support democracy in Georgia.

On 16 December I spoke with Georgian Dream's Foreign Minister, Maka Bochorishvili, about recent events in Georgia, and about Georgia's negative democratic trajectory. I stressed that police violence targeting peaceful demonstrators, opposition figures and journalists was unacceptable. On 19 December, the UK implemented sanctions against the Minister and Deputy Minister of Internal affairs and three police officials responsible for these violent actions. We have also suspended all programme support to the Georgian government, restricted defence cooperation, and limited engagement with Georgian Dream representatives. We continue to call on Georgia to realign itself with European values.