A US court confirmed the $383 million Namakhvani award against Georgia

The US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on 11 September 2026 on an award that an International Chamber of Commerce tribunal had made in ENKA's favour in December 2024, worth $383 million. ENKA brought the case to a US court because the United States is a party to the 1958 New York Convention on recognising foreign arbitral awards. The underlying dispute goes back to 2021, when Tbilisi terminated the investment agreement for the Namakhvani hydropower plant in the Rioni valley after sustained public protests.

The principal is $383 million. Interest accrues for each unpaid quarter, so the total is higher; the court report describes a figure expected to be significantly above $400 million, and a later business summary puts the liability as now exceeding $400 million with interest at a benchmark rate plus four points. We are not giving a precise total here, because the precise total depends on the date it is calculated and on filings we have not read.

Two readings, pointing in opposite directions. The uncomfortable one: a permitted, agreed project was cancelled, which is the kind of event that shows up in a country risk assessment. The reassuring one: the investor pursued the state through international arbitration and a foreign court, and won. For anyone weighing a large Georgian commitment, the enforceability of an arbitration clause is now a matter of public record rather than theory.

Georgia has separately sought to challenge or suspend the award in France, so the matter is not closed. A judgment confirmed in one jurisdiction does not by itself produce payment, and the practical question of how and when the state settles remains live. Treat the figure as the state's recognised liability on the record, not as money that has moved.