Georgia’s 10th Defence and Security Conference opens today

About three hundred defence and security officials are gathering in Tbilisi today to attend Georgia’s 10th Defence and Security Conference (GDSC) and discuss the threats and opportunities facing Georgia, the region and the wider world.

Over the next few days, decision-makers, high officials and civil society representatives will exchange views about the country’s defence and security issues and come up with strategies to combat these challenges.

The conference opened this morning with a special show by the British royal paratroopers – The Tigers – followed by speeches from Georgia’s Minister of Defence Tinatin Khidasheli, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and the Executive Vice President of the United States’ Atlantic Council Damon Wilson.

#GDSC2016Tbilisi starts w/ free fall parachute display team of UK pic.twitter.com/utwMAVralK

— MOD Georgia (@ModGovGe) May 24, 2016

Today – the first day of the two-day conference – will be solely dedicated to NATO, with special attention on the Alliance’s upcoming Warsaw Summit in Poland on July 8-9.

Tomorrow the conference will focus on three themes most relevant to the current security challenges:

• Security in the wider Black Sea region as an indispensable part of the Euro-Atlantic security architecture;
• Threats to international order and its implications for small states; and
• Unconventional dimensions of warfare – wars with neither battlefields nor warriors.

 Organisations participating in the conference include the US Atlantic Council, British Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The conference is being held at Hotels & Preference Hualing Tbilisi, near Tbilisi Sea.