Round 7 of Wardrop Strategic Dialogue
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, September 11
The 7th round of the Wardrop Strategic Dialogue was held virtually on September 9th between the Georgian and UK officials.
According to the Georgian MFA, foreign minister Davit Zalkaliani thanked the British authorities for their unwavering support for Georgia's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and Euro-Atlantic integration.
At the meeting, Zalkaliani stressed the urgency of implementing the main guide for further relations between the 2 countries, the Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Georgia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, signed in October 2019.
The conversation also touched upon the existing cooperation in the field of defense, the priority of further deepening of trade and economic cooperation; NATO-Georgia cooperation; the difficult security and humanitarian situation in the occupied territories of Georgia.
After the meeting, the Minister for European Neighbourhood & the Americas of the UK, Wendy Morton, announced that the United Kingdom has committed over GBP2 million to help Tbilisi “bring a peaceful end to years of conflict,” along with UK Export Finance (UKEF), a government agency operating alongside the British Department for International Trade, doubling its capacity for Georgia to more than GBP3 billion in 2020. “This additional support will help companies to access finance for projects, opening up new & exciting trade opportunities,” tweeted the minister.
“We are unwavering in our support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and continue to call out unacceptable ongoing Russian aggression,” Morton announced.
Highlighting the importance of relations with Georgia, the British Foreign Office focused on cyber-security, including cooperation in exposing Russian GRU’s cyberattack against Georgia, the 2019 signing of a continuity trade agreement and trade, volume of which reached GBP186 million in 2019-20, up by 40% since last year. The UK is also one of the biggest sources of FDI in Georgia, with 24.8% in Q2 2020.
Noting that “Georgia stands at the forefront of Russian aggression, with conflict at its borders since 2008,” the British Foreign Office said, “Georgia’s stability & security is vital for Europe so we’ve stepped up our defense cooperation with Georgian Defence Ministry and NATO.”
As part of the Dialogue, Georgia’s Deputy Defense Minister Lela Chikovani and UK’s Euro-Atlantic Security Policy Unit Director David Hogan-Hern signed the finance plan of 2020-2021 defense cooperation.
Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, David Zalkaliani, thanked the UK for “remaining unwavering in its support of Georgia’s territorial integrity and allocation of GBP2 million in financial aid” and expressed gratitude to UKEF “for encouraging economic opportunity and prosperity in Georgia.”
Within the framework of the Wardrop Strategic Dialogue, a virtual meeting was held between the First Deputy Minister of Defense of Georgia, Lela Chikovani, and the Director of the Euro-Atlantic Security Directorate of the United Kingdom, David Hogan Hearn.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, the Deputy Minister of Defense stressed the importance of strategic partnership with the UK in the process of strengthening Georgia's democratic consolidation, containment policy, and sustainability and focused on the dynamics of bilateral defense cooperation.
The sides signed the plan for bilateral financial cooperation in the field of defense 2020-2021 between Georgia and the UK.
Established in 2014, Wardrop Strategic Dialogue, named after Georgia-aficionado British siblings, diplomat Oliver Wardrop (first British Chief Commissioner of Transcaucasia in Georgia in 1919–20) and scholar Marjory Wardrop, brings together key elements of UK-Georgia bilateral relations from political matters, to defense and security, as well as economic and trade ties and people-to-people relations. Each year the 2 delegations talk about progress and discuss areas of future cooperation. From 2016, the format has been brought to a substantially different level forming Wardrop Strategic Dialogue.
The parliamentary dimension of the Platform was launched in 2017.
