Georgian Defence Minister meets German envoy Ortwin Hennig

Georgia’s new Minister of Defence Mindia Janelidze is today hosting Ambassador of Germany in Georgia Ortwin Hennig at the Ministry of Defence.

At this morning’s meeting, the officials discussed the current state of bilateral cooperation and agreed on how to deepen their relationship through future cooperation.

Minister Janelidze thanked the German Ambassador for his country’s political support of Georgia and its contribution to the development of the Georgian Armed Forces.

Janelidze believed Georgia and Germany had worked together very successfully in the defensive sector and hoped this would continue in the future.

She noted future bilateral cooperation would be continued in two directions, including for Germany assist Georgia as it worked to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organistion (NATO).

"We’ll continue cooperation in two directions with the German side. Firstly, we will actively cooperate to increase the defensive capabilities of the Georgian Armed Forces and the second important direction is our aspirations to join the North Atlantic Alliance,” Janelidze said.

"We agreed that we will have working meetings and regular consultations on this topic. I hope that these relations will be beneficial for the Defence Ministry,” she said.

In response, the German Ambassador expressed his country’s readiness to strengthen bilateral cooperation with the Georgian defence sector. He highlighted that after his short talk with the new Minister of Defence, he was assured Georgia’s foreign policy course was unchanged.

"This is a very important political message after the turbulences following the resignation of Ministers. We discussed the continued cooperation between Georgian and the German Armed Forces,” Hennig said.

"I [highlighted] the good cooperation that we used to enjoy with the previous team and [the new] Minister reassured me that this cooperation will be continued, it can even be deepened. We stand ready to deepen our relationship. I made the point that the more detailed Georgian reform concepts are, the better our cooperation will be.”