PM Garibashvili introduces Mindia Janelidze as new Defence Minister

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has introduced the country's new Defence Minister today.

Mindia Janelidze, 35, who currently held the role of Secretary of the State Security and Crisis Management Council, will take the post after previous Minister Irakli Alasania was dismissed by the PM yesterday.

Janelidze said he fully realized his new responsibility and listed several principles his future governance would be based on:

• He said the development course of the Armed Forces would remain the same – it would be oriented on Georgia's Euro-Atlantic integration and would continue its partnership with the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other strategic partners;
• Janelidze said each and every officer and soldier of the Armed Forces would be respected;
• He stressed the Army would be independent and it would not be involved in politics;
• Janelidze vowed the Defence Ministry would take care of the families of those who lost their lives or health while serving the country;
• And he said his governance would be based on the rule of law and transparency.

Meanwhile, ex-Defence Minister Alasania yesterday said Janelidze was a patriot and he would continue the reforms started at the Defence Ministry.

"I know Mindia Janelidze and I’m sure he is a patriot of our country,” Alasania said, adding he would meet the new Minister and hand over the Ministry to him.

Until now, Janelidze was the Secretary of the State Security and Crisis Management Council, which was created earlier this year upon the Georgian Government’s decision. The council was an advisory board for Prime Minister Garibashvili and was under his direct subordination. Accordingly, the Prime Minister was head of the Council.

In the PM's welcome, he said Janelidze graduated from the Academy of the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MIA) and was a specialist counterintelligence agent/lawyer. He received additional special education abroad in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

Janelidze started his career at the Counterintelligence Department of the MIA and has been working in various positions since then.

He served as head of the Operative Service Department first and then as head of the Counterintelligence Department of the MIA since late 2012 when Prime Minister Garibashvili held the post of Interior Minister.

Janelidze’s military rank is Vice Colonel and he has received the Medal of Honour and a departmental award for "high professionalism”. He speaks English, Russian and Turkish languages. Janelidze is married with a wife and three children.