NATO Parliamentary Assembly Committee in Georgia
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Tuesday, March 25
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly Committee is paying an official visit to Georgia on March 24-26.
Members of the Georgia-NATO Inter-Parliamentary Council and the Political Committee visited the NATO Liaison Office on March 24 and held a roundtable, where the parties discussed various security issues.
NATO alliance representatives also held meetings with the members of Georgia’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Georgia’s internal reforms, international security and NATO’s role, as well as Georgia’s role in regional stability will be discussed during the three-day visit.
While meeting with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly chaired by the Political Committee Chairperson, Jose Lelo, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili discussed the issues related with the process of Georgia`s integration into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The formats of making closer ties between Georgia and the alliance and the progress achieved in this process were also in focus. The two officials reviewed the situation in the region and the current developments in Ukraine.
Margvelashvili reiterated that Georgia’s integration into the NATO is one of the top priorities of the government’s foreign policy. He said the government was doing its best to get closer to the alliance and make further specific steps to facilitate the enforcement of the decision taken at the NATO Summit in Bucharest.
Representatives of the Political Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly pledged support to Georgia in this process.
Lelo said that at the meeting with the president they discussed all the important issues that would be included in the report to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
The meeting with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation was held in an enlarged format.
The Parliamentary Assembly is an independent entity of NATO, but it provides a link between NATO and the parliaments of its member countries to help build a parliamentary and public consensus in support of alliance policies.
On the second day of the visit the delegation plans to meet with NGOs and independent experts.
Meetings will also be held with the Prime Minister's Special Representative for Relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, Deputy State Minister for European and Euro- Atlantic Integration, Davit Dondua, Head of the NATO-EU Information Centre, Elene Gotsadze and Head of the National Security and Crisis Management Secretary, Mindia Janelidze.
The guests also visited the Vaziani military base outside the Tbilisi and traveled to the Georgia-Armenia border to monitor the efforts of the border police.
At the end of the visit, the guests visited the headquarters of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia and met with deputy Head of the Mission, Ryan Grist, which was followed by a joint briefing with regard to the mission's mandate and activities.
