Georgia’s Defence Minister meets top US official in Washington

Relations between Georgia and the United States (US) were high on the agenda of today’s meeting between Georgia’s Minister of Defence Tinatin Khidasheli and US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland.

The two officials met in Washington earlier today (local time) as part of Khidasheli’s visit to raise international awareness of the successful reforms carried out in Georgia, the country’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions and Russia’s occupying actions on Georgian soil.

The meeting concluded the Georgian official’s four-day US trip and focused on Georgia-US bilateral relations. Minister Khidasheli’s meetings also focused on prospects for closer cooperation, regional and global security issues and developing future joint projects in existing and new directions.

We are waiting to launch a range of new initiatives from next year. We have also spoken about security issues and on possible ways to ensure Georgia could be safer from security threats,” Khidasheli said after today’s meeting. 

Of course we are seeking easy, fast and effective ways for Georgia to be more and better secure. In this context we also touched on the current cooperation formats between Georgia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).”

Georgia’s Ministry of Defence started meetings in the United States on December 8. Photo by the Defence Ministry of Georgia. 

Khidasheli stressed Georgia had made significant progress towards NATO integration and said she had "positive expectations” of next year’s NATO Summit in Warsaw, Poland.

We are very optimistic of the Summit after the recent NATO Ministerial. Our progress towards the alliance is obvious; NATO’s open door policy is also obvious. … So we want to return back from the Warsaw Summit more empowered as an independent country,” Khidasheli said. 

While evaluating her US visit and various meetings, Khidasheli said they were "especially fruitful” and said it offered a platform where she could inform her US allies about the issues currently facing Georgia particularly in terms of territorial integrity.

Even today we have seen the benefits of our visits, when supporting statements of Georgia were made in Congress with very healthy and adequate assessments of the Russia-Georgia war of 2008. We are waiting for a series of such statements from our American partners following the meetings,” Khidasheli stated. 

During her visit the Georgian Minister  met representatives of leading US non-governmental organisations and research centres and delivered a speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. 

She also held meetings with representatives of the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, president of the National Democratic Institute Kenneth Wollack, head of the US Institute of Peace Stephen Hadley and the Institute’s president Nancy Lindborg and with American Senators and Congressmen.