Parliament Speaker Returns from US, says Support is Confirmed
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, February 12
(TBILISI)--Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has returned from his US trip and stated that “We were once again assured that support to Georgia is very strong and the changes we undertake are positively estimated.”
Kobakhidze stated that within the visit, the Georgian parliamentary delegation headed by him held “positive meetings “with more than ten Senators and Congressmen where they discussed the Georgian–US strategic partnership.
“We also thanked our American friends for their support. At the meetings, we were once again assured that support to Georgia is very strong and the changes we undertake are positively estimated and naturally, we will continue our close and strong cooperation with our American friends and partners,” Kobakhidze said.
As the Speaker stated, the parties also touched upon Georgian integration into NATO and the attitude of American partners was positive.
“Accession to NATO was one of the important topics of our discussions. Once again, we appealed to our American friends to express constant support to NATO integration of Georgia and in this regards, attitude is very positive.
“It is important and all the rest is up to our efforts and aspiration and naturally, we hope for support of our partners,” Kobakhidze said.
Kobakhidze stated that he told the US officials and lawmakers that the Georgian Government has “clear foreign political approach” with the priority of the EU and NATO integration and the Government is consistent in its efforts.
“We undertake developing reforms to ensure uninterrupted approximation of Georgia to EU and NATO and our reforms are quite successful. We hold close cooperation with NATO effective in defense and other spheres and we believe that this consistency will bring us to the desired outcomes,” Kobakhidze said.
”with support of our strategic partners, we believe in this goal and in this case, support of the US is particularly important,” the Speaker stated and added that he knew it was not easy to achieve the full-fledged membership of NATO in a couple of months or years.
