Opening remarks by NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and Giorgi Gakharia, Prime Minister of Georgia at the NATO-Georgia Commission.

Transcript

Prime Minister Gakharia, on behalf of the North Atlantic Council, thank you for the warm welcome to this beautiful and legendary city of Batumi. Our visit is a clear demonstration of NATO’s ongoing commitment to Georgia. It is also an occasion to celebrate five years of the substantial NATO-Georgia package: the cornerstone of our support to the reform of Georgia’s security and defense sectors and to Georgia’s preparations for NATO membership. Georgia is one of NATO’s closest operational partners, and we deeply appreciate the contributions Georgia makes to Euro-Atlantic security. Last year, NATO leaders reconfirmed their 2008 Bucharest Summit decision that Georgia will become a member of NATO. We continue to call on Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia’s occupied regions, and to respect Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally-recognized borders. This visit is an opportunity to deepen and strengthen our cooperation with Georgia even further and to ensure that the Black Sea remains a source of stability and security for all in the region. So, Prime Minister Gakharia, the floor is yours.

The Deputy Secretary General and ambassador. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a great honor. It’s a great honor to welcome the North Atlantic Council to Georgia for the fifth time. This is directly indicative of the support from NATO to Georgia. For this, on behalf of the Georgian government, I lend my thanks to you. So, I would like also to offer my thanks to each NATO member for support of Georgia’s territorial integrity and its independence within her internationally-recognized borders and most importantly, in the development of our democratic institution. A steadfast relationship with NATO is the grounds of the Georgian foreign policy and her safety, her security. The visit which is paid to Batumi is a symbolic one because it has been just recently, in collaboration between NATO and Georgia, we found a new space which is related to the Black Sea security. So we all comprehend that the safe Black Sea is a guarantee of the safety of Euro-Atlantic area. So, after the annexation of Crimea, Russia saw strengthening occur in the Black Sea area. Of course, NATO representation to the Black Sea is critically important. Dear colleagues, in 2002, Georgia addressed NATO with the solicitation of membership. After that, Georgia has seen a lot of hardships, but it has shown serious advance. She has shown serious advance, which was reaffirmed in the Bucharest 2008 Summit when Georgia got the pledge from the member countries that Georgia was going to be a NATO member. This is the stimulus for every Georgian citizen, and we should quite well comprehend that Georgia’s membership is being supported by over 71% of the overall population, which is given how serious firmness now is your Atlantic inspiration. This year NATO is celebrating 70 years anniversary. (background speaking drowns out speaker) Within these years, the open door policy of NATO, which one more time, comments that it is the guarantee of safety itself in the whole region and is giving hope to small nations such as Georgia. Today we have representatives in northern Macedonia as a guest, which has covered quite a long way and will become the thirtieth member of NATO shortly. This is a hope for Georgia that her children, which are for democratization and military collaboration and its interoperability by its significant increase. And the proper political evaluation of this will be done in the foreseeable future.

Thank you very much, Prime Minister. This concludes the public part of this meeting, and I thank the media for being here. We will pause a moment before we continue.