The State Minister of Georgia for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Alex Petriashvili explains the meaning of the package being offered by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) to Georgia at the NATO Summit in the United Kingdom.
"Our package is distinguished from all; we are "Gold Card” holders,” the State Minister said in his blog for Agenda.ge.
Petriashvili is among the Georgian delegation of high officials attending the NATO Summit in Newport, Wales.
"These countries ["Gold Card” holders] have been assessed and stand out as the most compatible [NATO] partners. They have made a special contribution to international security operations and during those operations it was clear that they were most compatible,” Petriashvili commented to journalists in Wales.
Georgia was the largest non-NATO troop contributing nation in Afghanistan followed by the four new enchanced partners - Jordan, Australia, Sweden and Finland.
The Minister believed additional opportunities to enhance Georgia’s partnership with NATO would emerge once the package was announced, and it would only have one main goal: "to fasten Georgia’s NATO membership”.
At yesterday’s opening day of the NATO Wales Summit, Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili met NATO’s top official and discussed the support package NATO will offer Georgia in the next two days.
NATO Security General Anders Fogh Rasmussen published an announcement on his Twitter account after the meeting:
Tomorrow we’ll launch a new coop package to help strengthen #Georgia’s defence, prepare for membership. #NATOsummitUK
— AndersFogh Rasmussen (@AndersFoghR) September 4, 2014