Stoltenberg praises Georgia’s reform efforts to improve democracy
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Head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg has met Georgia’s Parliament Speaker and local lawmakers within the North Atlantic Council (NAC) visit to Georgia.
As Georgia approaches national elections next month, I want to take this opportunity to commend all members of Parliament for your active engagement in strengthening Georgia’s democratic institutions.
Georgia has made impressive progress on fundamental electoral reforms. You have also strengthened the rule of law. And you are pursuing key reforms in the defence and security sectors.
Stoltenberg stressed it was essential for Georgia to carry out widespread reforms to help the Georgian people assimilate to high international standards required for NATO membership.
Georgia’s Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili spoke of the importance of NAC meeting in Tbilisi, which involved high level NATO country leaders. He said the decision to host the NAC in Georgia meant Georgia was a "full-fledged participant of the alliance’s activities”.
It is very important for us … not to ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for NATO membership but asking which way is the best and most effective way to become a full-fledged member,” Usupashvili stated.
Georgia is on an unwavering path towards greater integration with NATO and the European Union (EU).
In May 2017 Georgia will host the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA), which Usupashvili believed would be "one of the most important events in the NATO PA direction for a non-member state”.
Following on from Stoltenberg’s meeting with Georgia’s Prime Minister yesterday, today he is scheduled to meet the country’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili.
A new information centre on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union (EU) has official opened in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.
"Allies are determined to increase and intensify the level of NATO’s support for Georgia,” says Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. "As an aspirant country, Georgia has all the practical tools to prepare for NATO membership."
Georgia’s capital Tbilisi is preparing to welcome the North Atlantic Council chaired by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg this afternoon. The NATO top official will chair a meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission.
NATO: "We welcome the significant progress realised since 2008. Georgia’s relationship with the Alliance contains all the practical tools to prepare for eventual membership."
"NATO allies are extremely impressed with the strides Georgia has made"
"Now we are in a third important phase of NATO’s evolution, which in some ways began to take shape when Russia used military force here in Georgia in 2008. Since then Russia has kept unwanted troops in the Republic of Moldova [and] illegally annexed Crimea,” the NATO leader stressed.
“Bonds between NATO and Georgia are stronger than ever”
This afternoon NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met Margvelashvili at the President’s residence in the heart of capital Tbilisi, where he said "the bonds between NATO and Georgia are stronger than ever”.
Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) says the Alliance never seeks confrontations but it must react when it sees continual military build-up by Russia and Russia's will to use military force against its neighbours.
Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili is optimistic of the country's future with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and says there have been several examples in history when countries with occupied territories and disputed borders were accepted into the alliance.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said to become a full-fledged member of NATO, the country should meet certain standards, while Georgia and Ukraine are now exactly focused on reforms, on modernizing defense institutions, fighting corruption and strengthening democratic institutions.