Parliament Speaker’s visit to NATO confirms NATO-Georgia “comprehensive” relations - parliament official

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili’s visit to NATO once again confirms the  “comprehensive nature” of NATO-Georgia relations, Irakli Beraia, the Chair of the Defence and Security Committee of the country’s legislative body, said on Tuesday.

He noted Papuashvili would address the NATO-Georgia Commission meeting and would hold high-level meetings at the NATO headquarters during his two-day visit to Brussels.

In the capitals of Europe, Georgia is considered as a future NATO member state”, Beraia said, stressing the main topics of discussion by the Georgian delegation would be the regional security environment, the current situation in the Russian-occupied territories of the country, the process of the country's Euro-Atlantic integration, progress and the importance of Georgia's accession to NATO, as well as the urgent need to make the decision in this regard”.

He also emphasised that Georgia was ready to join NATO, as the country “decently” shared the “security burden” of the Euro-Atlantic space, adding the decision to join NATO had been made in 2008 at the Bucharest Summit.

Papuashvili left for Brussels earlier today, with the Georgian delegation including Irakli Beraia, Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, and MP Ketevan Turazashvili.