The authorities of the United Kingdom (UK) have decided to freeze the Wardrop Dialogue with Georgia at the ministerial level and cancel the negotiations in the defense sector due to the actions of the Georgian authorities, informed UK ambassador to Georgia Gareth Ward.

“For those reasons, for the first time in 10 years since we started our bilateral Wardrop Dialogue, we on the UK side decided to freeze these ministerial talks. We have not held our planned Defense Staff talks, and we have paused new cyber security programming,” Ward said in an interview with the Interpressnews news agency of Georgia.

According to the ambassador, Georgia's relations with both the UK and other western partners have undermined the steps of the Georgian government. The UK, as noted by the diplomat, was worried about the "Transparency of Foreign Influence" law adopted by the Parliament of Georgia.

The UK side is disappointed also by the propaganda of the conspiracy theory by the ruling Georgian Dream party, and is shocked by its election campaign pledge to ban opposition parties after the October 26 parliamentary elections.

But Ward expressed hope that, “After the elections, whoever is in [Georgian] Government, we hope to see clear evidence of a return to the Euro-Atlantic track in order to rebuild trust and return to a close partnership.”