A former Georgian defense minister and Tbilisi's former ambassador to the United States have lamented the reduced language devoted to Georgia in the declaration that emerged from this week's NATO summit in Washington.
Pursuit of EU and NATO membership remains embedded in the post-Soviet Caucasus nation's constitution, but the current Georgian government's passage of a perceived Russian-style law to curb media and NGOs has dealt a blow to both efforts.
SEE ALSO: NATO's Washington Summit And Its Real LegacyWhereas former declarations have mentioned Georgian cooperation with the transatlantic defense alliance, NATO members this week limited the text to a single reference urging Russia to completely withdraw its troops from Moldova and Georgia.
NATO allies controversially pledged in the 2008 Bucharest Summit Declaration that Georgia would eventually become a member, providing it fulfilled requirements.
That decision was reconfirmed in the wake of Russia's five-day war with Georgia in August 2008 and Russia's ongoing occupation of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.
Tina Khidasheli, Georgia's defense minister in 2015-16 and a critic of the current Georgian Dream government, told RFE/RL that she was shocked at the exclusion and hoped "that it is only temporary."
"I didn't have high expectations, but I didn't expect anything like that, that they would neither repeat the record of the Bucharest summit, nor talk about the NATO-Georgia program, nor mention the essential package of the Wales summit," she said.
A 2022 NATO summit in Madrid approved specific "support measures" for Georgia as a partner seemingly at risk from Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade Ukraine months earlier.
But EU officials have checked the momentum of Georgia's candidacy, and the United States has undertaken a "comprehensive review" of relations with Tbilisi since the so-called "foreign agent" law was passed in May over pro-European President Salome Zurabishvili's veto.
Prime Minister and Georgian Dream leader Irakli Kobakhidze, who in May accused a former U.S. ambassador of supporting two attempted revolutions in Georgia, responded to Washington's review by calling for a review of relations with the United States.
"The main issue regarding Georgia is that Georgia is no longer on the Euro-Atlantic agenda and that there has been a democratic backsliding in Georgia, which may bring irreparable consequences," Batu Kutelia, a former Georgian ambassador to the United States, told RFE/RL regarding the perceived NATO snub.
In addition, the U.S. House of Representatives is considering legislation calling for increased scrutiny of the Georgian government's actions and its ties to Russia and other authoritarian regimes like China.
The so-called Megobari Act passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on July 11, a spokesman for Representative Joe Wilson (Republican-South Carolina) said on July 12.
The act, which takes its name from the word that means friend in Georgian, mandates several reports, including an assessment of Russian intelligence's penetration of Georgia and Tbilisi's cooperation with China.
Wilson, co-chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, said on X, formerly Twitter, that he was grateful for the passage of the measure, which makes it "very clear that we support the people of the nation of Georgia" and adding that the Georgian people "have made it clear they want to live in a free and democratic Georgia."
The bill is expected to come to a vote in the full House before Congress adjourns for summer break in August.
Wilson has said he wants the bill to become law ahead of Georgian elections in October.