NATO Secretary General Visits Georgia
NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who arrived in Tbilisi late on October 3, will hold talks with the country?s leadership on October 4.
Early on Thursday he delivered a public lecture at Tbilisi State University. Talks with PM Zurab Nogaideli and Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze will follow.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will then travel to the eastern region of Kakheti where he will meet with President Saakashvili in the town of Signagi. A joint news conference is scheduled there.
On his return to Tbilisi he will meet ambassadors of NATO-member states accredited in Georgia and then leave for Brussels.
Commentators in Georgia say the visit is of crucial importance for the country which hopes to join NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) when the alliance holds a summit in Bucharest in April 2008.
Some opposition politicians, however, say the timing of the visit is not very favorable for the country?s NATO ambitions. They point to the political standoff between the authorities and the opposition following the arrest of the ex-defense minister, Irakli Okruashvili, and say that suggestions that the Georgian authorities hold political prisoners will be viewed disfavourably in Brussels.
Salome Zourabichvili, a former foreign minister and leader of opposition Georgia?s Way party, said on October 3 that the opposition leaders planned a meeting with Robert Simmons, the NATO Secretary General’s special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, on Thursday to brief him on recent developments.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
