AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports Democrats are fractured in the fight to prevent a government shutdown.
Day: March 14, 2025
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Congressional Democrats are torn over Chuck Schumer’s support for the GOP’s government funding bill ahead of a midnight deadline. We have new developments on a Palestinian activist’s deportation case. New CDC data shows how big of an impact a large measles outbreak is having in the US. Canada has a new prime minister amid a US trade war. And, new details are emerging in the desperate search for a missing college student.
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On Friday, US Ambassador to Georgia Robin Dunnigan met with Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili, the first formal meeting held between US officials and representatives of Georgian Dream since the contested parliamentary elections in October.
‘Ambassador Dunnigan met Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili today to outline President Trump and Secretary Rubio’s top priorities and steps that Georgia can take to demonstrate its seriousness about improving its relationship with the US’, the US Embassy said in a post.
There were no further details added.
In its own readout of the meeting, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said ‘the agenda of cooperation between Georgia and the US was discussed at the meeting, noting that the partnership of the two countries, which is based on common values and interests, requires positive dynamics, which the Georgian government has repeatedly confirmed’.
‘The parties noted that the strategic relations established between the countries over the decades are the best basis for deepening future cooperation. The meeting also discussed the security environment and challenges in the region and the world and, in this context, the importance of US support and cooperation. At the end of the meeting, the parties expressed their readiness to work actively to make progress in the strategic cooperation of the two countries’.
The meeting came after months of a diplomatic freeze between the US and Georgia, particularly during the final months of former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The crisis followed the contested parliamentary elections, which handed the ruling Georgian Dream party another four-year term in office. The official results have been widely criticised, including by the US, but the Biden administration fell short of explicitly declaring the election to be illegitimate.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has openly stated on numerous occasions that it was hoping for a reset under the Trump administration, but concrete steps in that direction — before today’s meeting — had yet to materialise.
At the same time, a bipartisan group of US senators reintroduced the MEGOBARI Act in the Senate earlier this week, an act that would mandate further sanctions against Georgian officials and reaffirm support for Georgian media and civil society.
Another bill, the Georgian Nightmare Non-Recognition Act, was introduced by Representative Joe Wilson in January 2025. The legislation would prohibit the recognition or normalisation of relations ‘with any Government of Georgia that is led by (Georgian Dream honorary founder) Bidzina Ivanishvili or any proxies due to the Ivanishvili regime’s ongoing crimes against the Georgian people’.
Neither bill has been held for an official vote.
