Britain has frozen its annual security dialogue with Georgia and cancelled other talks on defence over concerns about democratic backsliding, Britain's ambassador to Tbilisi said in an interview published on Tuesday.
"I had expected that we would work together to strengthen Georgia's resilience and our common prosperity, but over the past year the Georgian government has chosen a different course," Ambassador Gareth Ward told the InterPress news agency.
A link to the interview was posted on the embassy's Facebook page. The Foreign Office in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Relations between the West and Georgia, a country of about 3 million people traditionally one of the most pro-Western states that emerged from the break-up of the Soviet Union, have soured this year in the run-up to a parliamentary election on Oct. 26.
Western countries have criticised Georgia over a law passed in May requiring groups that receive funding from abroad to register as foreign agents, which opponents say is inspired by Russian legislation used to stifle dissent.
The Georgian government's actions had prompted Britain to raise "concerns about the decline of democracy and anti-Western rhetoric", Ward said.
London would suspend its annual "Wardrop Dialogue" with Tbilisi - covering foreign, security and defence policy, as well as economy and trade - for the first time since the sessions began in 2014. London also cancelled high-level talks on defence and put a new cyber security programme on hold.
The election later this month is widely viewed as a test of whether Tbilisi returns to Russia's orbit or embraces a future in the EU, which it has applied to join.
"After the elections, regardless of who is in government, we hope to see clear evidence of a return to the Euro-Atlantic path to rebuild trust and return to a close partnership," said Ward.
Georgia's EU membership process was frozen shortly after the foreign agent law was passed. Earlier this month, the bloc's envoy to Tbilisi, Pawel Herczynski, said Georgia's ties to Brussels would suffer further and the country may even face sanctions if it veers from democracy and becomes a "one-party state".
A week later, Russia lifted visa restrictions on Georgia, granting its citizens the right to work in Russia.
The two neighbours still have no formal diplomatic relations after a short war between them in 2008, but they have undergone a rapprochement recently, including reinstating direct flights last year.
