George attempted several times, though vainly, to ransom his father (who would die as a prisoner in 1612) from captivity and even offered to the Sublime Porte his son as hostage.

In 1602, when the Safavid shah of Persia Abbas I resumed a war against the Ottomans, George sided with the Persians and led the Georgian auxiliary troops which took part in the conquest of Erivan in 1603/1604.

He was the first king of Kartli who attempted to establish diplomatic ties with the northern co-religionist power of Muscovy.

According to Georgian chronicles, George X died suddenly, from a sting on his tongue, after biting into a cake with a bee in it, at Mejvriskhevi, 1606.

George married on 15 September 1578, Mariam (Tamar) (died c. 1614), daughter of Giorgi I Lipartiani, of the Dadiani dynasty.