NATO’s new Special Rep for Caucasus, Central Asia to visit Georgia next week
Javier Colomina Piriz was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy and NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia in September, 2021. Photo: Javier Colomina/Twitter
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The NATO Secretary General’s new Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Javier Colomina, who is also NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, will be visiting Georgia next week.
Javier Colomina has tweeted:
Looking forward to my first trip to the #Caucasus next week. I will be visiting #Azerbaijan ????????, #Georgia ????????, and #Armenia ???????? in my new capacity as #NATO Special Rep for the Caucasus and Central Asia in order to identify ways to further enhance NATO’s engagement in the Caucasus.
— Javier Colomina (@JavierColominaP) October 16, 2021
This will be Colomina’s first trip to the region after he replaced James Appathurai as the special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Appathurai, who had served as the special representative for the past 10 year, has been awarded with the order of the Golden Fleece for his special contribution to strengthen NATO-Georgia relations and the support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the College of Europe in Bruges earlier today that ‘NATO’s door remains open’ for Georgia and Ukraine. Stoltenberg said that he was at the NATO summit in Bucharest back in 2008 when the alliance made a decision that Georgia and Ukraine will become its members but they ‘did not set any fixed date’.
James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia for the past 10 years, is holding his last meetings in Georgia in the role. He has already met with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani and the country’s opposition. Zalkaliani has described Appathurai as ‘a big friend of Georgia, who has done his utmost to make Georgia’s NATO integration progress irreversible.’
In 2018, NATO will assess the progress of states aspiring to become a member of the organization, including Georgia, James Appathurai NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia said adding that NATO will continue working on bringing aspiring countries further into the fold of the alliance.
A new information centre on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union (EU) has official opened in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.
The NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Javier Colomina, who is on his first official visit to Georgia, has stated that Georgia is one of NATO’s major partners and that the country ‘has used’ all practical mechanisms offered by the alliance. “NATO wants a comprehensive relationship with Georgia,” Colomina said after his meeting with Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani late yesterday.