PM Gakharia: Georgia ready for NATO membership

Georgia is fully ready to be a NATO member state, Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia told local media on Saturday as his government marked 12 years since the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.

Gakharia was speaking at a formal remembrance of servicemembers who died in the conflict, held at the Mukhatgverdi Cemetery on the outskirts of Tbilisi where officials met family members of the fallen troops.

The head of the government told reporters "today Georgia is fully ready for NATO membership and our partners can see and appreciate this".

Gakharia also said in his comments "nothing could threaten relations with our strategic partners" and added Georgia's foreign partnerships had reached a status "never seen before".

The Prime Minister named the country's Euro-Atlantic integration and peaceful development as a "necessary precondition" for restoring its territorial integrity.

On Friday, American Congressman Adam Kinzinger told an online conference co-organised by the Georgian Foreign Ministry it was "time for Georgia to be fully a member of NATO" and added the ongoing occupation of a part of the country should not impede its membership.