Ambassador Michael Carpenter, U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) denies that America has lost interest in the Caucasus region amid the war in Ukraine.

"Pro-Russian disinformation and propaganda is extremely active in the South Caucasus and particularly in Georgia. It’s been that way for years. Russian television is, of course, available to many of the citizens of Georgia, but they use a variety of different conduits to try to influence the population. And one of their favorite messaging themes is that the United States and our allies and partners are far away, that we’re less engaged, that Russia is there, that Georgia essentially has to cut a deal with Russia in order to be able to develop and move forward. I can tell you that that is false," Ambassador Carpenter said at an online press briefing in response to the Accent's question.

He emphasized the current involvement of the United States in the region:

"The United States is deeply engaged in the region. We are currently very heavily involved in the discussions between Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding normalization of their relations. We are supportive of the process between Armenia and Turkey. And we’re very engaged in Georgia itself, and Phil Reeker, our new Caucasus envoy, has been to Tbilisi and we’re going to continue to have high-level engagement with Georgia."

According to him, "Georgia is one of the few democracies in the region with which the United States has had deep and abiding ties for a long time."

"When I was deputy assistant secretary of defense, I helped institute the Georgia Readiness and Defense Program, which has helped Georgia with developing its own territorial defense capacity and capability. So I know the country well and I know that we’ve been heavily engaged for many, many years. Georgia was also with us in Afghanistan at great personal cost to a lot of Georgian soldiers," Ambassador Carpenter added.

He said that "Georgia’s trajectory, as repeatedly confirmed by its political leadership as well as by its population, is to join Western structures":

"The truth is that Georgia’s trajectory, as repeatedly confirmed by its political leadership as well as by its population, is to join Western structures – NATO and the EU – and we support those aspirations and we will do everything we can to make good on them."

"So it is not true what Russian propagandists are saying, and in fact, as Russia’s both soft power and hard power are shown to be weaker based on what’s happening in Ukraine, I think a lot of countries in the region are going to realize that their future is not tied to the Eurasian Economic Union but rather in other directions. And many governments have already spoken out about this," Ambassador Carpenter added.