President and new Defence Minister enjoy “interesting” first meeting

Georgia’s newly appointed Minister of Defence has held his first official meeting with the country’s President to discuss the direction of the Defence Ministry and the agency’s goals.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili sat down with Defence Minister Levan Izoria yesterday, where the pair agreed to establish a working group that will be tasked with enhancing Georgia’s relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the country’s foreign allies. 

After the meeting Izoria said the discussion was "very interesting.” 

He did not specify who were potential members of the new group but said the group would be tasked with developing a strategy that clearly outlined "all the elements” that were essential for Georgia’s fast integration into NATO,  for boosting Georgia’s self-defence capabilities and implementing recent deals between Georgia and the United States on strategic cooperation. 

The Minister promised the strategy would be presented to the public once it was developed. 

Izoria replaced Tinatin Khidasheli as Georgia’s Minister of Defence at the beginning of August. Khidasheli decided to step down from the role as she is a member of the Republican Party, which will participate in the October 8 Parliamentary Elections separately from the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party.