Georgian Defence Minister Attends NATO Ministerial in Brussels
By Khatia Bzhalava
Friday, June 17, 2022
Georgian Defence Minister Juansher Burchuladze is visiting Brussels within the framework of a NATO ministerial. On Thursday, Burchuladze met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and discussed NATO’s political and practical support for Georgia, the security environment and challenges in the Black Sea region, as well as the war in Ukraine.
According to the Georgian Defence Ministry, the sides reaffirmed their support and solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and also stressed the importance of deepening NATO-Georgia practical cooperation in order to strengthen Georgia’s resilience, defense capabilities, and compatibility with NATO. The officials also discussed the importance of increasing NATO involvement in providing practical assistance and strengthening regional security within the framework of the NATO-Georgia Essential Package.
Secretary-General praised Georgia’s reforms and the progress made in cooperation with NATO. According to the official statement, Stoltenberg reaffirmed the readiness to boost support for Georgia to enhance its cybersecurity capabilities to handle hybrid challenges.
The sides stressed the ‘special importance’ of the forthcoming NATO Madrid Summit against the background of the existing security environment amid the war in Ukraine. Stoltenberg also expressed hope that during the Madrid Summit the leaders “will recommit to our open-door policy and also restate what we said before since the Bucharest Summit on Georgia and NATO membership.”
After the meeting, Stoltenberg noted that the alliance is working on how to provide more support and how to further strengthen the partnership with Georgia.
“We stressed, the allies and myself underlined the importance of stepping up support both political and practical support for allies that are vulnerable for Russian interference and of course, Georgia is very much among them because Georgia has already suffered the consequences of military intervention from Moscow in 2008,” Secretary-General said.
After attending a working meeting held at NATO headquarters within the framework of the defense ministerial, the Georgian defense minister highlighted the role of Black sea region stability for the overall European security.
“Today we need to be united against the aggressor like never before. The European security architecture cannot be perfect without security and stability in the Black Sea region”, Burchuladze noted.
The minister also stressed that Georgia had been ‘one of the biggest’ contributors to NATO peacekeeping operations for decades, which, according to him, strengthened the country and made it more compatible with the alliance along with the modernization and transformation of the Georgian Defence Forces.
Victor Dolidze, the Head of the Georgian mission to NATO, announced yesterday that the question of Georgia's accession to NATO and the decision of the 2008 Bucharest Summit on the matter is “in force”, with all alliance members states ‘unanimous’ on the issue.
Dolidze also highlighted the Georgian delegation’s first participation in the Rammstein format of NATO in Brussels this week to discuss strategies and initiatives to assist Ukraine in combating the ongoing Russian invasion. According to him, Georgia's participation in the Rammstein format is “politically a very important decision, which underscores the importance of cooperation with the alliance, and the importance of Georgia itself to NATO”.
The Georgian Defence Minister is also scheduled to meet with German and Lithuanian defense ministers to discuss Georgia's path to alliance membership, the importance of NATO's open-door policy, and Georgia’s European Union membership bid.
