International Tribunal Rejects Dutch Investor's Claim Against Georgia in Anaklia Port Dispute
By Liza Mchedlidze
Friday, August 1, 2025
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a World Bank-affiliated arbitration body, has ruled against Dutch investor Bob Meijer in his case against the Georgian government over the termination of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port contract.
Meijer, a former investor in the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), filed the arbitration case in 2020. He claimed the Georgian government's termination of its investment agreement with ADC violated the bilateral investment treaty between Georgia and the Netherlands.
The ICSID decision, which has not been made public, was first reported by Georgia's Ministry of Justice on July 31. The Ministry welcomed the ruling, stating that the tribunal found the investor "alone bore the commercial risks of the project" and failed to meet key contractual obligations, including securing the necessary funding.
According to the Ministry, the tribunal upheld the Georgian government's right to terminate the contract in January 2020 after granting multiple deadline extensions. It also rejected Meijer's claim for USD 64 million in compensation and instead ordered him to pay USD 6.5 million to the Georgian government.
"The failure to implement the Anaklia Port project is entirely the responsibility of Mamuka Khazaradze, Badri Japaridze, and their partners," the Ministry said, adding that "the legality of the criminal proceedings related to alleged money laundering against Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze was not brought into question."
The original Anaklia port development project collapsed in 2020 after the government canceled its agreement with ADC, a joint venture between Georgia's TBC Holding and U.S.-based Conti International. The cancellation followed a criminal investigation into alleged money laundering by TBC founders Khazaradze and Japaridze, as well as Conti's withdrawal from the project.
Khazaradze has claimed that the ruling Georgian Dream party deliberately sabotaged the port project. Both he and Japaridze, who co-founded the opposition Lelo party in 2019, are currently in prison after boycotting a parliamentary commission led by Georgian Dream.
ADC had already lost a separate arbitration case at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in 2024.
In response to the ICSID ruling, the Lelo party accused Georgian Dream officials of misrepresenting the case. "This was a dispute between investor Bob Meijer against the state," the party said. "The government killed the Anaklia project on Russia's orders six years ago and has made no progress to this day."
Meijer called the outcome "disappointing" and said the tribunal only examined "a narrow question: whether the Government was within its rights under the Georgia-Netherlands bilateral investment treaty to terminate the investment agreement."
The Anaklia Development Consortium also responded, saying the ruling does not absolve the government of its responsibility. "The government spent five years making promises and issuing statements," the Consortium said. "But here we are, five years later, and there is no signed agreement with any developer, much less actual construction."
