Georgian PM Meets U.S. Vice President

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili at the White House on April 26.

“The Vice President congratulated Georgia on the remarkable progress the country has made in its 25 years of independence, emphasizing that Georgia has become a leader in the region,” the White House said.

It said that the Vice President thanked PM Kvirikashvili for Georgia’s “unwavering partnership and support, and reiterated steadfast U.S. commitment to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
 
“The Vice President reaffirmed U.S. support for continued progress toward Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration, noting that deepening Georgia’s political, economic, and military reforms remains the best path to advance these aspirations. The leaders pledged to continue working together towards ensuring Georgia’s security and prosperity,” the White House said.

PM Kvirikashvili said:  “We had a very interesting meeting with Vice President Biden, who is Georgia’s strong supporter.”

“We spoke about 25 years of partnership that [the U.S. and Georgia] have had since restoration of Georgia’s independence, and we spoke about our partnership for next 25 years, about how to develop further our partnership, how to broaden our cooperation in defense and security, how to broaden economic cooperation. I think it was much-needed and interesting dialogue,” the Georgian PM said after the meeting.

“We also spoke about importance of development of democracy in Georgia and of course we also discussed importance of maintaining democratic standards in the pre-election period [ahead of the October parliamentary elections in Georgia],” said Kvirikashvili, who is visiting the United States on April 25-29.

Georgian PM’s office said that in Washington Kvirikashvili also met chairman of Senate foreign relations committee, Republican Senator Bob Corker and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who is the same committee’s ranking member, as well as Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Sessions; co-chairs of Congressional Georgian Caucus, Congressmen Ted Poe and Gerald Connolly; chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs Ed Royce and Congressman Eliot Engel.