NATO Deputy Secretary General visits Georgia this week

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow will visit Georgia on January 29-30. Photo by NATO official website.
Agenda.ge, 26 Jan 2015 - 11:57, Tbilisi,Georgia

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow is set to visit Georgia in two days' time.

Speaker of Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Davit Kereselidze said Vershbow will arrive in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on January 29 and while here, will meet Georgian high officials and discuss Georgia's implementation of the Substantial Package NATO offered to Georgia at the NATO Summit in Wales in September 2014.

NATO Deputy Secretary General will visit the place where the NATO-Georgia joint training center will be built, implemented as part of the Substantial Package NATO offered to Georgia. He also will lead a public lecture at an event organised by the Atlantic Council of Georgia,” Kereselidze said.

The upcoming visit of Vershbow was announced when Georgia’s State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Davit Bakradze met Vershbow at the NATO-Georgian Commission (NGC) meeting, held at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on January 14.

Earlier, Georgia's State Minister responded to Vershbow’s statement on his Twitter account where he wrote: "NATO is fully committed to Georgia’s future membership. All tools are in place to move forward with Georgia’s aspirations”.

The NATO Deputy Secretary General is set to visit Georgia in three weeks and we will continue our consultation on implementation of the Substantial Package. NATO-Georgian Commission, Annual National Program and Substantial Package are those three tools sufficient move forward to NATO membership,” Bakradze said at the time.

Furthermore, Georgia’s Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili described a statement from the NATO Deputy Secretary General as "a very significant victory for the Georgian Government".

NATO Deputy Secretary General’s statement emphasized that NATO has committed to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, as well as its reforms. I believed that the reforms implemented by our authorities brought us a great victory,” Beruchashvili said.