NATO’s Appathurai meets with Georgian PM, announces plans for many high-level visits from NATO

Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy and NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai have told Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze that the alliance will further boost its support for Georgia next year and the assistance will also be revealed in many high-level visits from Brussels.

He stated that 2018 was particularly successful in NATO-Georgian relations and said that the alliance is well aware of its responsibilities to the country.

Prime Minister Bakhtadze told me that the government is eager to meet the will of the Georgian people regarding the country’s integration into NATO. It is our responsibility to provide firm support to achieve this goal,” Appathurai said.

Georgia’s role in Black Sea security and the Georgian presidential elections were also discussed during the meeting.

I congratulated the PM on the conduction of the elections and expressed certain worries regarding the polarization of a political dialogue. Georgian PM says that the Georgian people wants calm and less polarized election process in the future,” Appathurai said.

Appathurai has also met with Georgian president-elect Salome Zurabishvili.

President-elect  Zurabishvili met with Jame Appathurai in Tbilisi today. Photo: IPN. 

Zurabishvili told the media that NATO-Georgia cooperation and all the challenging issues for the country have been discussed during the meeting.

She stated that she will hold her first official visit in Brussels.

We spoke about NATO-Georgia cooperation and NATO’s firm support to all the directions which are challenging for Georgia: territorial integrity, conflicts, occupation line, and security of the Georgian people.

We also spoke about the importance of the Black Sea security and Georgia’s role in international peace missions. It is important that Georgia to be known not only as the country which needs the support of allies, but also the state which contributes for international peace and security,” Zurabishvili said.

Appathurai arrived in Georgia today and held his first meeting with the Georgian Foreign Minister.