Georgian President Meets NATO Chief in Brussels

At the NATO summit in Warsaw next month, the Alliance will “further strengthen our package of support for Georgia”, which will be “a clear demonstration of our strong political and practical support” for the country, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after meeting Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili in Brussels on June 8.

“I think there’s hardly any other partner nation of NATO that receives more practical support than Georgia with the substantial package, with the training center, with the exercises, with advisors from NATO being present in Georgia,” he said.

President Margvelashvili, who will be leading the Georgian delegation at the NATO Warsaw summit, said that he expects Georgia to “come out of the Summit stronger.”

“I do expect that after Warsaw Summit we will have more tools and more resources for increasing our defensibility as well as increasing our cooperation formats that will further the reforms in armed forces and will increase our capacities,” the Georgian President said.

Officials in Tbilisi say that the Warsaw summit on July 8-9 will be a success for Georgia if the country receives additional instruments that would provide for more self-defense capabilities.

Although NATO foreign ministers said in December that Georgia has “all the practical tools to prepare for eventual membership”, they also reaffirmed that before joining the Alliance the country should go through a Membership Action Plan (MAP) phase, which Georgia has been denied since 2008. The Alliance is not likely to grant MAP to Georgia at the Warsaw summit. Georgian officials say that decision on MAP, when there is a consensus on it within the Alliance, will actually be a political one, which might be equivalent to invitation to join NATO.

“It’s too early for me of course to pre-judge exactly what heads of states and government will decide [at the Warsaw summit],” the NATO Secretary General said.

“I think it’s important to understand that even without MAP there’s a lot of things we can do,” Stoltenberg said.

“To have more NATO in Georgia but also more Georgia in NATO is good for Georgia, it’s good for NATO and that’s exactly what we are doing and that is of great importance both for Georgia and for NATO,” he added.

Stoltenberg also said that with its “impressive defence reforms” and by putting in place “a more mature democracy”, Georgia has “moved closer to NATO.”
 
He said that Georgia’s “progress in consolidating its democratic institutions”, efforts to strengthen rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, as well as preparations for the October 8 parliamentary elections were also discussed at the meeting with the Georgian President.
 
He also thanked Georgia for its contribution to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

With 861 soldiers Georgia is the third largest troop contributor to NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan after the United States (6,954 troops) and Germany (980 troops).

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