Defence Minister Meets with New Head of EUMM
Thursday, January 29
Minister of Defence of Georgia Mindia Janelidze hosted new Head of EUMM Georgia, Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas at the MoD. Deputy Chief of Defence Minister Levan Girsiashvili attended the meeting as well.
At the introductory meeting the sides expressed readiness to continue cooperation in the future and discussed future relation plans. Defence Minister expressed gratitude to the Ambassador for the activities the EUMM is carrying out in Georgia and its contribution in maintaining stability all over the country.
The minister highlighted the importance of EUMM in Georgia and positively evaluated its mandate. “We had a very interesting meeting concerning the previous activities of the mission and its future plans. Under the cooperation between the MoD and EUMM, we render assistance and support them to implement the mission perfectly, as well as to exchange information about the circumstances in the breakaway regions and along the occupation line. We extend readiness to deliver accurate information to the international community”, stated Mindia Janelidze.
Kestutis Jankauskas expressed hope for close cooperation with the Defence Ministry: “I was delighted about the meeting with Minister of Defence. It’s my second week on the job as a Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission. So this was an introductory meeting for us better get to know each other. We have long-standing good cooperation between the EUMM and the Ministry of Defence. We had an exchange of use on the existing cooperation and pledged from both side to continue that cooperation in the future. From the EUMM side I could assure that EUMM will continue implementation of all of its tasks.”
Kestutis Jankauskas replaced Toivo Klaar as Head of EUMM in December, 2104. EUMM is an unarmed civilian monitoring mission of the European Union deployed in Georgia in 2008 with the aim to stabilize the situation and reduce tension.
