Georgia to receive unprecedented package from NATO
By Jamila Babayeva
Georgia will receive an unprecedented package from NATO at Wales Summit slated for September 4-5, 2014. The package was expected to bring closer the alliance and Georgia in political, institutional and technical terms.
Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze made the remarks after a meeting with NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai in Tbilisi on July 9.
She said the sides discussed issues related to the preparation of NATO's Wales Summit.
"Appathurai will brief the 28 NATO countries about our position on these issues. Later a package provided by Georgia will be discussed," she noted. "The package includes several elements. In short, it can be named as more Georgia in NATO and more NATO in Georgia".
Panjikidze underlined that Georgia is the first aspirant country, for which NATO has developed such a package.
"For the first time in history, Georgia will participate in a strategic dialogue among the NATO member states. Such a package will become a real tool for Georgia's integration into the NATO," she said.
Appathurai in turn said NATO-Georgia cooperation will expand after Wales Summit.
"Georgia's efforts to join the alliance will continue. I am confident that before the summit Georgia's progress will be surely fixed," he noted.
However, Georgia is dissatisfied with what the NATO offered today to the country.
"But the NATO's package on "intensified cooperation" indicates an increase in the level of cooperation," State Minister for Integration into European and Euro-Atlantic Structures Alexi Petriashvili said in an interview with local television channel "Imedi".
He said Georgia is ready for the upcoming NATO's Wales Summit.
"The democratic election of local bodies played its role in this process. I hope that the summit will adequately assess Georgia's progress," he noted.