NATO, Georgia Defense Ministers to Meet in Krakow

NATO-Georgia Commission on the ministerial level will be held in Krakow this month to discuss an Annual National Program (ANP), James Appathurai, the NATO spokesman, said on February 5.

NATO defense ministers will gather for an informal meeting in Krakow, Poland on February 19-20. NATO foreign minister decided in December to develop an ANP for Georgia through which the alliance plans to provide “guidance and support” to Georgia to help meet the NATO standards.

Georgian Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze; Defense Minister, Davit Sikharulidze and State Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration, Giorgi Baramidze, were in Brussels on February 4, where they met with NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, as well as with 26 ambassadors from NATO’s 26 nations in frames of the NATO-Georgia Commission.

Issues related with situation in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia were raised during the meeting.

James Appathurai said on February 4, that NATO was watching “intimations in the press” that Russia plans to build bases for its military and navy in the breakaway regions “both carefully and with concern, as they seem to be in violation of Georgia’s territorial integrity.”

“The Secretary General will raise this issue with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister [Sergei] Ivanov when he meets with him at the Munich Security Conference [this week],” the NATO spokesman added. “We cannot shy away from discussions on issues on that we fundamentally disagree.”

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