Gov’t to approve National Counterterrorism Strategy and Action Plan
The strategy was developed by the permanent Interagency Commission composed of different state authorities and chaired by the State Security Service. Photo: SSS.
Tweet 
Share
The Government of Georgia will approve the National Counterterrorism Strategy and Action Plan on Monday, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced at today’s government meeting.
Garibashvili said the document aimed to protect the state and the public from dangers posed by terrorism and violent extremism.
The strategy was developed by the permanent Interagency Commission composed of different state authorities and chaired by the State Security Service.
The authors of the paper have taken into consideration the experience of the US, UK, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany in developing the document.
The Georgian State Security Service (SSS) says that five individuals who were arrested in Georgia’s Muslim-populated Pankisi gorge earlier today were members of terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) and had plans to leave for Syria.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia says that the most recent report on terrorism by the US Department of State has ‘highly praised’ the activities of Georgian law enforcement and security agencies, adding that US-Georgia cooperation in the security field should become ‘more and more effective.’
The US Department of State said in its recent report on terrorism that in 2018, “Georgia, a longstanding member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, continued its robust engagement with the United States across a range of counterterrorism-related issues”.
The head of Georgia’s State Security Service Vakhtang Gomelauri stated in parliament today that the threat of terrorism remains low in Georgia.
Gomelauri told lawmakers that in 2017 the State Security Service managed to prevent terrorist acts, referring to two recent large-scale anti-terrorism raids in Georgia.
The permanent Interagency Commission composed of different public authorities and chaired by the State Security Service on Friday held the sixth meeting, highlighting that Georgia takes one of the “significant places” in counter-terrorist activities, according to international estimates.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the Georgian Government would “consider all recommendations” in the sixth report of the European Commission on the fulfilment of visa-free obligations by Eastern Partnership countries and the Balkan states and follow up on their implementation.