In this paper we study the stochastic differential equations driven by $G$-Brownian motion ($G$-SDEs for short). We extend the notion of conditional $G$-expectation from deterministic time to the more general optional time situation. Then, via this conditional expectation, we develop the strong Markov property for $G$-SDEs. In particular, we obtain the strong Markov property for $G$-Brownian motion. Some applications including the reflection principle for $G$-Brownian motion are also provided.