Georgia’s Government Administration Head Levan Zhorzholiani met on August 10 with Belarusian Ambassador to Georgia Nikolai Rogashchuk, with the talks focused on the “dynamics of relations” between the two countries, including trade and economic ties, and “prospects for future cooperation.”
“The sides discussed trade and economic ties between Georgia and Belarus and opportunities for further deepening cooperation,” the Georgian Government Administration said in a press release, adding: “It was noted that economic relations are developing at a growing pace, as reflected in the trade volumes between the two countries during the first six months of 2026. The prospects for increasing exports of Georgian products to Belarus were also elaborated.”
Relations between Tbilisi and Minsk have intensified over the past year, as the Georgian Dream government has become increasingly isolated from the country’s traditional Western partners amid its anti-European and anti-democratic shift.
In March 2026, Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze met in Tbilisi with Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Shuleiko, who has been under EU and UK sanctions since 2022 and 2023, respectively. The two discussed bilateral relations and prospects for cooperation, according to the Georgian Government Administration. In October 2025, Kobakhidze had also held an introductory meeting with Belarusian Ambassador to Georgia Nikolai Rogashchuk.
In September 2025, Georgian Dream Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili met with her Belarusian counterpart, Maxim Ryzhenkov, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. That same month, then-Georgian Dream Interior Minister Geka Geladze met in China with Dmitry Gora, the Western-sanctioned chairman of Belarus’s Investigative Committee.
While Minsk officially does not recognize Georgia’s Russia-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia regions as independent states, it maintains ties with both territories. In 2022, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko visited the resort town of Bichvinta in occupied Abkhazia, sparking widespread outrage and condemnation from Georgian officials and the public, who accused him of violating Georgia’s law on occupied territories.
In 2016, Tbilisi and Minsk signed a controversial agreement providing for the exchange of state security information and cooperation on issues such as crimes against the constitutional order, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as transnational organized crime, terrorism, and the illicit circulation of weapons. The agreement entered into force in 2021.
In December 2024, the violent suppression of pro-EU protests by Georgian authorities sparked speculation that they may have sought guidance from their Belarusian counterparts on tactics for suppressing the demonstrations.
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