The Georgian government is facing accusations of international isolation after not being invited to the NATO summit in Turkey, the first time a key partner has been excluded from the alliance's agenda.
Georgia’s political and civil society spheres have been gripped by a renewed debate over why its government was once again not invited to the NATO summit in Turkey and to regional political and security events, a possible sign of Tbilisi’s political isolation.
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As with previous summits, NATO partner countries such as Qatar, the UAE, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia as well as Ukraine were invited to Ankara to attend events focusing on regional security, whereas, for the first time, former key NATO partner Georgia did not appear in the official summit programme nor in the accompanying forums.
Over the past decade, Georgia has consistently declared its approach to the EU and NATO as national strategies, but this time Tbilisi was absent from the alliance agenda, prompting a political debate in Georgia over whether the country has lost its political influence or relevance.
Georgia’s ruling party representatives claimed that the summit in Ankara did not include the type of meetings Georgia used to attend in the past and rejected accusations of political isolation.
Georgian Dream MP Irakli Kirtskhalia told the press in Tbilisi that “we have no problem attending the summit, ask the organizers why we are not represented.”
Georgia’s Foreign Ministry replied that Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili was going to attend a separate event in Turkey called “Allies in Ankara,” but that it was part of the Munich Security Conference, which critics noted was not connected to the NATO summit.
“This is an important opportunity for Georgia to present the country’s positions and its regional role to partners,” Botchorishvili said, describing the alternative event.
Opposition Lelo party representative Grigol Gegelia countered that, for the first time in Georgia’s history, the country is not represented at the NATO summit itself.
In turn, Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili travelled to Tehran to attend the funeral of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, alongside a small number of other regional leaders.
Georgian political analyst Paata Zakareishvili has claimed that the absence of NATO’s invitation to its regional security debates represents what he called the loss of trust by Georgia’s partners.
“Georgia is being ignored. There is a view that it is better not to maintain relations with it because no one knows what information Georgia might pass on to Russia. Georgia is seen as an unreliable, vulnerable, and toxic state," Zakareishvili said.
“Georgia should have been present at this summit as an honoured guest,” he pointed out, given the country’s significance in the Black Sea and Caucasus.
“Countries that are not NATO members will attend the summit in Turkey. Georgia is a country aspiring to join NATO. Georgia and Ukraine used to move towards NATO membership together," Zakareishvili said.
"Georgia is no longer being considered anywhere. We are not meeting the required conditions and that is one of the reasons why we are not invited to join the group of countries we should have been part of,” he added.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s former ambassador to NATO Levan Dolidze said that "Georgia is now effectively in confrontation with its former strategic partners which is clearly affecting the country's relations with NATO and the EU,” because “a foreign policy that leads to international isolation is causing significant harm to our country’s national interests.”
“There was a time when Georgia was NATO’s most valuable partner. Unfortunately, that status is now being called into question. In this case, Georgia’s absence was due to the alliance’s agenda,” Dolidze said, adding that “what is far more damaging is Georgia’s absence from discussions within the European Union.”
Towards the end of 2025, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze insisted to Euronews that Georgia’s path towards EU membership “remains steady and irreversible” and that the goal of joining the 27-member bloc by 2030 is “both realistic and attainable,” despite the strained relations between Tbilisi and Brussels after both parties hit pause on the South Caucasus country’s EU accession talks.
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 but halted its membership application process indefinitely and cut financial support last June after the passage of a "foreign influence" law that the bloc described as Russian-inspired and authoritarian, against the backdrop of massive anti-government protests in Tbilisi.
After winning the general elections in October 2025, Kobakhidze announced that Georgia would pause discussions on its bid to join the EU until 2028 due to what the prime minister described then as "blackmail and manipulation" from some of the bloc’s politicians, telling Euronews in November last year that the ball was in Brussels' court.
Although a gradual thaw between Georgia and the EU at the time opened a renewed path towards active negotiations, the process has however lost thrust over the last six months.
Kobakhidze told the forum in Antalya earlier this year that Georgia positions itself as a bridge between Europe and Asia and as a transit hub for energy connectivity together with its neighbour Azerbaijan in the context of its EU accession process.
“We try our best and we are are striving to further strengthen our connectivity function. In the current environment, where trade routes are once again facing serious challenges, we are able to offer certain services to our partners in different parts of the world,” Kobakhidze said.
Tbilisi continued pressing on with regional defensive initiatives to diversify transport and energy routes and involve Georgia in major connectivity projects in the region.
At the EPC summit in Yerevan in May, Kobakhidze with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and had a brief encounter with French President Emmanuel Macron, reaffirming "Georgia’s readiness to continue close cooperation with partners" at the event.
This week, Kobakhidze claimed that Georgia is ahead of all EU candidate countries in economic progress indicators.
At a ceremony marking the completion of a major highway construction project, he also announced that strengthening the country’s transit and connectivity systems is a key priority, while Georgia and Azerbaijan recently announced a new agreement on electricity supply and transit.
Meanwhile, Georgia banned the import of a large shipment of flowers from Armenia, citing non-compliance with phytosanitary regulations, according to the Revenue Service of the Georgian Ministry of Finance.
The Georgian authorities’ decision mirrors a series of similar decisions by the Russian Federation, which unleashed an onslaught of economic restrictions on Armenian exports following Yerevan’s cautious pro-Western and pro-EU turn.