Georgia on Wednesday received pledges of $4.55bn in aid from foreign governments and other international donors to help it recover from its invasion and defeat at Russian hands in August.

“Given the financial difficulties there are now on a global scale, to show this much support is something no Georgian will ever forget,” said Lado Gurgenidze, Georgia’s prime minister, at a donors’ conference in Brussels. The amount pledged was significantly higher than the target of about $3.2bn (€2.5bn, £2bn) set in a pre-conference assessment of Georgia’s needs by the World Bank and other international agencies.