‘Extraordinary’ NATO-Georgia Commission Session Planned
Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze, said he will leave for Brussels to take part in a meeting of NATO-Georgia Commission on March 5.
Vashadze said on March 4, that it would be “an extraordinary session” held upon the Georgian side’s request. He, however, declined to discuss why Tbilisi was pushing for this meeting, which was not pre-planned.
“You will guess if you think over it,” Vashadze told journalists.
He also said that the Georgian side had been “working intensively” for a month to convene the Commission session now.
“We will lay out our vision on how to develop Georgia-NATO cooperation,” he added.
NATO foreign ministers are holding meeting in Brussels on March 5.
The last meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission was held on February 20 in Krakow on the level of defense ministers.
In an interview with Reuters on March 2, Georgia’s Defence Minister, Davit Sikharulidze, called on the West to halt what he said was a continuing Russian military buildup in two breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“Both the European Union and United States made their position very clear with regard to these activities. If this political pressure continues, it would play an important role in … stopping the Russians doing what they are doing," Sikharulidze said. “The security environment is a concern. This represents a danger not only for Georgia but for the entire region… Our mission is to be ready to resist if the Russians decide to attack Georgia, major cities, vital links of communications again. Our understanding is that this cannot be ruled out.”
Meanwhile, French news agency, AFP, reported quoting unnamed NATO diplomats that the Alliance was expected to decide about resumption of formal relations with Russia at the foreign ministerial summit in Brussels on March 5.
NATO decided to freeze talks with Russia after the August war. In December, NATO decided to resume relations on an informal level.
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