Georgia in NATO Secretary General’s 2023 Annual Report
On March 14, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg released his annual report titled “Adapting to a Critical Time.” Georgia is featured in several parts of the report including those about the Alliance’s efforts at boosting partners’ training and capacity building, the Building Integrity initiative, the NATO’s Open Door Policy, bilateral and regional partnerships, NATO’s Engagement in the South Caucasus, and Women, Peace, and Security and Human Security agendas.
The report details the Alliance’s work and achievements in 2023. The central place in the report is occupied by the ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine , as well as the war in the Middle East and “the “greater competition from authoritarian states, including China.” The document reports on the gamut of measures taken to strengthen the Alliance’s defenses and readiness. It welcomes Finland accession as the 31st Ally, notes the Vilnius Summit results, “where the Alliance strengthened its collective defence and brought Ukraine closer to NATO”, and notes the deepening cooperation with partners.
According to the report Georgia, “one of NATO’s closest partners” and “aspiring member of the Alliance” was “significantly affected” by “the deteriorating security environment resulting from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”. The report says that the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package, which is the Alliance’s “main tool for practical cooperation with Georgia”, was further enhanced in 2023 in line with the Madrid Summit 2022 decisions to provide Tailored Support to Georgia.
Apart from the existing package and its 18 initiatives, the report notes that the NATO defense ministers endorsed two new initiatives in February, focusing on training facilities and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense.
As for the Alliance’s Defense and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative, the Secretary General’s report notes that it has become more relevant after Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the Alliance enhanced its Defense Capacity Building packages for Georgia as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, with these steps further strengthening partners’ resilience against “Russian malign interference”.
The report’s sup-chapter on Open Door Policy says that the Policy has been a historic success, hailing in this context Finland’s accession and noting that at the most recent NATO Summit in Vilnius “Allies stated that Ukraine’s future is in NATO and that the Alliance will support Ukraine on its path toward future membership.” As for Georgia the report reads: “The Vilnius Summit Communique also reaffirmed that Allies remain committed to supporting the eventual NATO membership of Georgia” without explicitly mentioning the Bucharest Summit decision that Georgia will eventually become a NATO member, unlike the Secretary General’s 2022 report.
In the new subchapter titled NATO’s Engagement in South Caucasus, the report notes that NATO continued “active engagement” with the governments and civil society of the three countries through the Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Javier Colomina. “NATO expressed support for the territorial integrity, political independence and sovereignty of each of these three partners.”
As for NATO’s bilateral and regional partnerships, the report notes that the Allies are actively engaged with 17 partner countries in the Euro-Atlantic area, and developed “specific structures” for relations with two of these partners, namely Georgia and Ukraine.
The report outlines the launch of the Peer Review process for Georgia in the framework of the NATO Building Integrity initiative, after it had submitted the Self-Assessment Questionnaire in 2022.
And finally, discussing the Alliance’s record on the Women, Peace and Security and Human Security agendas, the report notes the visit of his Special Representative for Women, Peace, and Security to Georgia in 2023.
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