NATO Summit: Georgia package launches tomorrow

On the opening day of the NATO Summit in Wales, Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili met NATO’s top official and spoke briefly on the support package NATO will offer Georgia in the next two days.

Tomorrow we’ll launch a new coop package to help strengthen #Georgia’s defence, prepare for membership. #NATOsummitUK

— AndersFogh Rasmussen (@AndersFoghR) September 4, 2014

Margvelashvili’s meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen took place in the framework of the NATO Summit in Wales, which will officially open later this evening.

The 2014 NATO Summit in Wales will be the largest gathering of international leaders ever to take place in Britain. Over the next two days, 60 world leaders, 70 Foreign Ministers, 70 Defence Ministers and 28 NATO member countries will participate in the Summit.

The Secretary General began his greeting by congratulating President Margvelashvili on his birthday and wished him success in future endeavours.

The meeting was held before the opening of the Summit and the sides talked about the significance of this event. They stressed the Summit was even more important in the wake of the Ukraine crisis in terms of ensuring security in the region.

I thanked @AndersFoghR for his steadfast support for #Georgia on its path to the #North Atlantic integration. #NATOSummitUK@NATOWales

— President Of Georgia (@MargvelashviliG) September 4, 2014

The sides expressed their hope that the Summit would be a new push for Georgia's NATO membership.

Margvelashvili and Rasmussen briefly discussed the Substantive Package, a document, which Georgia was expected to be granted in Wales. The Secretary General said it would be "a new impetus for preparing Georgia's integration into NATO and for more effective conduct of the process”.

The Wales Summit has its five priorities to discuss during the two-day long event:

• Crisis in Ukraine and NATO’s relationship with Russia
• Afghanistan’s future
• Tackling new threats
• Strengthening support for NATO Armed Forces
• And Strengthening partnerships

"While we invest in our forces at home, we should also do more to provide practical support to other countries that need to strengthen their own security,” the official policy paper of the Summit read.

"In Wales, we would like to agree on new defence capacity building missions to other parts of the world, for example Georgia or the Middle East.”

Later today, President Margvelashvili is scheduled to hold meetings with his Polish, Ukrainian and Czech counterparts. This will be followed by Margvelashvili’s meetings with President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy.

Meanwhile at the NATO Summit this evening, the Georgian President will attend meeting of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission member states, in which Georgia contributed troops. He is also expected to deliver a speech at this meeting.

The other members of the Georgian delegation are also scheduled to hold official meetings with different world leaders. Defence Minister Irakli Alasania will meet his British and Ukrainian counterparts. He will also deliver a speech at the leaders’ conference. 

Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze will also meet a number of Ministers from the NATO states later this evening.