Riga Summit preparation: Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine officials meet in Tbilisi

Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have agreed on their joint approaches for the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Summit, due to be held in Riga in May.

Deputy foreign ministries of the three European Union-associated countries met in Tbilisi to discuss their Summit plans earlier today.

The parties agreed this trilateral meeting format would be attended by each countries’ foreign ministers in future.

"Georgia-Moldova-Ukraine mutual dialogue has a higher importance in the context of the common challenges the countries are facing due to their European choice,” said Georgia’s Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili afterward.

"Occupation and annexation attempts of Georgian territories, annexation of Crimea, the Eastern Ukraine conflict and frozen conflict in Transnistria are Russia’s obvious attempts to force these three countries to refuse their European choice.”

Despite this Beruchashvili said the European ambitions of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova was "firm”.

"European integration is the key part of Georgia’s foreign and domestic policies,” Beruchashvili said.

She also noted Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine "highly appreciated” the EU’s support towards their countries’ territorial integrity and called on the EU to further strengthen its engagement in the peacekeeping process in the region.

The trilateral meeting was initiated by Tbilisi and aimed to review and discuss the Georgian, Moldovan and Ukrainian experiences before the Riga Summit.