A bilateral U.S.-Georgia working group under the strategic partnership charter between the two countries will meet on April 27 in Tbilisi to discuss “a range of issues related to democratic reforms in Georgia”, according to the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi.

The working group on democracy is one of those four inter-agency bilateral groups, which were established to address priority areas of the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Charter, which was signed in January, 2009. Other priority areas of cooperation identified by the charter are security, economic and people-to-people relations.

Tina Kaidanow, the deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, and Kathleen Fitzpatrick, the deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, will co-chair the U.S. delegation at the democracy working group meeting in Tbilisi.

The Georgian delegation will be co-chaired by Sergi Kapanadze, the deputy foreign minister and Tinatin Burjaliani, the deputy justice minister.

During the visit the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretaries of State will also meet with civil society and opposition representatives, according to the U.S. embassy.

The most recent meeting of the democracy working group was held in November, 2010 in Washington and was co-chaired by Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner. The latter was in Georgia in November, 2009 when the democracy working group met in Tbilisi.