Defence Minister: Georgia should be NATO’s equal partner in Black Sea security

Georgia’s Minister of Defence believes the country should play a main role in a new partnership to ensure security in the Black Sea region that’s expected to be established by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in the future. 

Minister Tinatin Khidasheli made the statement in Brussels, Belgium today, where she participated in the NATO Defence Ministers meeting. 

At the moment one of the top issues for the Alliance is ensuring security in the Black Sea region, which emerged on the agenda after Crimea’s occupation (by Russia),” Khidasheli said.

When [NATO] have two members and three partner states in the Black Sea area it is impossible to speak about establishing a new security system or format without the participation of the member and partner nations.”

Therefore our aim is for Georgia to play a significant role in any security system that will be offered by NATO for ensuring safety in the Black Sea area,” Khidasheli said. 

The Georgian official also commented on tomorrow’s NATO-Georgia Commission meeting and said empowering Georgia’s self defence capacities would be high on the agenda of the meeting. 

Our major aim at the NATO Warsaw Summit will be obtaining such guarantees of self defence that will be sensed by each Georgian citizen,” Khidasheli said. 

She added NATO-Georgia cooperation was progressing on a daily basis.