PM Gakharia: Georgia ready for NATO membership
The Georgian Prime Minister spoke to reporters at a formal remembrance of servicemembers killed in the 2008 war. Photo via Prime Minister's Page on Facebook.
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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.
Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Co-chair of the Friends of Georgia Group in the United States Congress and a Republican Party member, said it is "time for Georgia to be fully a member of NATO" in his address as part of the Peace and Security in Europe online conference on Friday.
Georgian Coast Guard was among navies from NATO member states and partners last week marking over two decades of partnership for Black Sea security through the Sea Breeze 2020 maritime drills.
The Georgian Border Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is hosting Standing NATO Maritime Group TWO (SNMG2) in the territorial waters of Georgia in the Black Sea port town of Poti. Within the visit SNMG2 will conduct combined maritime exercise training with Georgian Coast Guard vessels Ochamchire and Dioskuria.
NATO Foreign Ministers have decided to deepen their partnerships with Georgia and Ukraine including with exercises in the strategic Black Sea region. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this includes joint work to counter hybrid warfare, as well as efforts to share more air traffic radar data, “making the skies safer for all”.
No nation has contributed more to NATO efforts than Georgia, retired four-star general Philip Mark Breedlove told Voice of America in an interview about the alliance, the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia and more.
In an interview with the Georgian edition Voice of America, former NATO Commander James Stavridis says that NATO membership for Georgia will become more realistic if the country’s occupied territories will be viewed as frozen conflicts.
Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier today at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where Black Sea security, air traffic radar data sharing, upcoming elections in Georgia and the challenges and progress of the country on the path to NATO membership were discussed.
US President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for the post of State Secretary Antony Blinken has stated that if Georgia meets the criteria for NATO membership then the alliance should keep its door open for the country, Voice of America has cited Blinken as saying during the recent meeting of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee.