NATO Envoy to Visit Georgia

NATO Secretary General?s special representative for Caucasus and central Asia countries Robert Simmons will visit Georgia on February 2-6, the Georgian Foreign Ministry reported.

During the visit Robert Simons, who is also NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Security Cooperation and Partnership, will hold talks with the Georgian President, the Prime Minister, the State Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration Issues, the Foreign Minister and other top-level Georgian officials.

Last June, the governments from NATO states decided at the Istanbul Summit to make a special focus on the Caucasus and Central Asia.

To implement this decision, Robert Simmons, a special representative for these two regions, has been appointed. In addition, two NATO liaison officers, who will be in close cooperation with the NATO?s special envoy, will be permanently stationed in each of the two regions.

Robert Simmons said last September that the NATO liaison officer in the Caucasus will be stationed in Tbilisi and will work closely with the Georgian Defense Ministry.

The North Atlantic Council, which is the decision-making body of NATO, approved Georgia?s Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), which establishes specific defense and political reform goals for Georgia, on October 29.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who paid a one-day visit to Georgia last November, said that “Georgia matters for the NATO” and called on the Georgian authorities to implement IPAP.