Georgian FM meets Permanent Representatives of NATO Member States in Brussels

By Khatia Bzhalava

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

The meeting with the Permanent Representatives of the NATO Member States was held at the initiative of the Permanent Delegation of Poland to NATO.

“Our partners from NATO have reaffirmed their pledge to support Georgia strongly,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Davit Zalkaliani said.

Within the framework of his visit to Brussels, Davit Zalkaliani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia met with the Permanent Representatives of NATO member states to the Alliance. According to the Foreign Ministry, Georgia once again received strong support for the Euro-Atlantic integration from the partner countries and Alliance member states.

The importance of constant communication and coordination with NATO partner countries - Georgia and Ukraine on security issues was stressed at the meeting and as the ministry notes, it was highlighted that Georgia is a valuable and reliable partner of NATO. Georgia's role in the context of regional and global security was also mentioned.

Zalkaliani stressed after the meeting that NATO Partners have reiterated their position that they are unanimous and their decision remains unchanged regarding Georgia’s NATO membership, despite the harsh rhetoric coming from the Russian Federation.

“The position of our NATO partners remains firm that the decision of the Bucharest Summit will not be reconsidered and that no one has the right to consider any region as their sphere of influence as countries have a fundamental right to choose which security alliance they want to join,” Minister of Foreign Affairs noted, adding that the coordinated action of NATO and Georgia is important to further improve the progress made on Georgia's integration path. The Minister also briefed the representatives of the partner countries on the recent high-level communication with the United States and NATO and welcomed the increased dynamics of coordination between the partner countries.

According to the official statement, discussions during the meeting also focused on Georgia's visions regarding the current situation, the security environment in the region, and the ongoing developments in the occupied territories of Georgia. The Georgian side expressed solidarity with Ukraine and condemned the cyber-attacks targeted against the Ukrainian government agencies and private organizations, during which the hackers left threatening messages on targeted websites, noting that “all information about Ukrainian people has become public”.