NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

The proposal to set up the NATO-Georgia Commission was made in the wake of the conflict between Georgia and Russia in early August 2008. A Framework Document establishing the new body was signed by NATO’s Secretary General and the Georgian Prime Minister on 15 September in Tbilisi. The inaugural session took place immediately afterwards, during the visit of the North Atlantic Council to Georgia.

The NATO-Georgia Commission will deepen political dialogue between NATO and Georgia and will supervise the process set in hand at the Bucharest Summit, in April 2008, in view of Georgia’s membership aspirations. The Commission will also coordinate support to Georgia to help the country recover from the recent conflict.

Response to the Georgian crisis

At an emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Council on 19 August, Allied foreign ministers called for a peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict based on respect for Georgia's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Allied foreign ministers deplored the use of force in the conflict, which is inconsistent with the commitments to the peaceful resolution of conficts that both Georgia and Russia have made under the Partnership for Peace as well as other international agreements. They expressed particular concern over Russia's disproportionate military action which is incompatible with Russia’s peacekeeping role in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Allies also called on Russia to take immediate action to withdraw its troops from the areas it must leave under the terms of the six-point agreement brokered by the European Union

The Allies agreed to support Georgia, upon its request, in a number of areas. These include assessing the damage to civil infrastructure and the state of the ministry of defence and armed forces; supporting the restablishment of the air traffic system; and advising on cyber defence issues.

Intensified Dialogue

NATO offered Georgia an Intensified Dialogue on Georgia’s membership aspirations in September 2006. The Intensified Dialogue gives Georgia access to a more detailed discussions with NATO on the standards necessary to achieve membership and the way in which Georgia’s reforms can be tailored to achieve those standards.  At their Summit in Bucharest in April 2008, NATO leaders agreed that Georgia would become a member of the Alliance, and launched a period of intensive engagement with Georgia to address questions still outstanding pertaining to Georgia’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) application. Future decisions on when Georgia will move to the MAP stage and eventually to membership will be based on Georgia’s performance in implementing key reforms laid out in the IPAP. As agreed at the Bucharest Summit, the application to join MAP will be reviewed by Allied foreign ministers in December 2008.

How does cooperation work in practice?

Georgia sets out its reform plans and timelines in its IPAP, which is agreed for a two-year period. Key areas include political, military and security-sector reforms. NATO agrees to support Georgia in these reforms by providing focused, country-specific advice tailored towards its reform goals. Current priorities for Georgia include transforming its public and private sectors in order to promote democracy, good governance, the rule of law and sustainable social and economic development, as well as reforming the security sector, in particular implementation of its Strategic Defence Review.

Beyond supporting reform, another key objective of NATO’s cooperation with Georgia is to develop the ability of the country’s forces to work together with forces from NATO countries in peacekeeping and crisis-management operations. Georgia contributed to the Kosovo Force (KFOR) from 1999-2008, provided support for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2004, and started providing a further contribution to ISAF in 2008. Georgia also participates in Operation Active Endeavour, NATO’s anti-terrorist operation in the Mediterranean Sea.

Georgia also cooperates with NATO and other Partner countries in a wide range of other areas through the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC).

Georgia tailors its participation in the PfP programme through an annual Individual Partnership Programme, selecting those activities that will help achieve the goals it has set in the IPAP.

Key areas of NATO-Georgia cooperation are highlighted below.

Security cooperation

Thanks to regular participation in PfP training and exercises, Georgia has been able to contribute actively to Euro-Atlantic security by supporting NATO-led peace-support operations. Georgian troops worked alongside NATO troops in the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo from 1999-2008, providing a company-sized unit as part of the German brigade there and an infantry platoon within a Turkish battalion task force.  

A platoon-sized unit served alongside a British battalion in ISAF, helping to secure the environment to allow the conduct of the presidential elections in Afghanistan in 2004. Georgia continues to provide important support in allowing supplies needed for the ISAF troops in Afghanistan to transit though its territory, under an agreement signed with NATO in March 2005. Georgia currently provides medical personnel to assist ISAF within the Lithuanian Provincial Reconstruction Team, and discussions are ongoing about further contributions Georgia may make to the ISAF mission.

Georgia has declared one light infantry battalion available, on case by case basis, for PfP operations. It has also made logistics facilities and a mountain training site available for PfP activities.

Georgia contributes to the fight against terrorism through its participation in the Partnership Action Plan on Terrorism (PAP-T). This includes sharing intelligence and analysis with NATO, enhancing national counter-terrorist capabilities and improving border security.  Georgia participates in NATO’s Operation Active Endeavour, an anti-terrorist operation in the Mediterranean Sea.

Defence and security sector reform

NATO is supportive of the wide-ranging democratic and institutional reform process underway in Georgia, which is outlined in its IPAP. Specifically in the area of defence and security sector reform, NATO and individual Allies have considerable expertise that Georgia can draw upon.

A key priority for Georgia is to ensure democratic control of the armed forces. A civilian defence minister has been appointed, who is now served by a civilian-staffed defence ministry. In addition, the parliament’s Defence and Security Committee also plays a role in monitoring defence activities.  Georgia’s subscription to the objectives of the Partnership Action Plan on Defence Institution Building (PAP-DIB) is reinforcing these efforts, such as by promoting effective judicial oversight and appropriate defence command and control arrangements through a range of measurable objectives within IPAP.

Georgia’s participation in the PfP Planning and Review Process (PARP) since 1999 has helped develop the ability of its forces to work with NATO and is also providing planning targets that are key to defence reform objectives in several areas. NATO support has, for example, helped Georgia build deployable units according to NATO standards and interoperable with Allied forces. Georgia’s defence reform objectives within the PARP have facilitated improved financial management in the Ministry of Defence, assisted in reforming the intelligence structure of the armed forces and ensured that a credible Strategic Defence Review was conducted.

NATO and Georgia cooperate on the conversion and management of military sites and other areas. Moreover, through a NATO/PfP Trust Fund amounting to €1 million,  individual Allies and Partners have supported a project in Georgia aimed at demilitarizing over 500 ground-to-air defence and other missiles. In September 2008, implementation started on the destruction of further stockpiles of rockets and missiles under a second Trust Fund project, which was formally launched in October 2007.

Civil emergency planning

Georgia is enhancing its national civil emergency and disaster-management capabilities in cooperation with NATO and through participation in activities organised by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC).

The EADRCC helped coordinate the delivery of hundreds of tons of relief items to Georgia in the wake of the August 2008 armed conflict. It also coordinated assistance to Georgia in 2005, when the country experienced some of the worst flooding in its history, and in 2006, when forest fires broke out in southern Georgia.

Science and environment

Under the Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme, Georgia has received grant awards for over 40 projects for scientific and environmental collaboration. Many activities are aimed at aiding Georgia’s reform and interoperability efforts, such as research and technology in air defence systems and data standardisation, and reducing the environmental impact of military activities and munitions disposal.

Other projects include collaboration on improving trans-boundary water quality and a range of security-related studies including effective counter-terrorism and maritime security and network technology. Georgia also participates in the Virtual Silk Highway project, which aims to improve internet access through a satellite-based network.

Public information

Increasing the public awareness of NATO and its relations with Georgia is also a key area of cooperation. Since 2002, in cooperation with local non-governmental organisations and state authorities, NATO has been organising numerous activities to this end, including seminars, conferences and workshops. “NATO Weeks” and summer schools are organised on an annual basis to reach out to youth audiences.

Groups of opinion leaders from Georgia are regularly invited to visit NATO Headquarters and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) for briefings about the Alliance, and NATO officials regularly travel to Georgia to speak at public events.

NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division has also supported the creation of a National Information Centre on NATO, which has become the focal point for dissemination of information.

How did relations with Georgia evolve?

NATO-Georgia relations date back to 1992, when Georgia joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (later renamed the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997), upon gaining independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Cooperation deepened and broadened after Georgia joined the Partnership for Peace programme inn 1994 and the PfP Planning and Review Process (PARP) in 1999.

After the “Rose Revolution” in 2003, the focus on supporting Georgia’s domestic reform process intensified, in particular through the development of the Georgia’s first IPAP with NATO in 2004. Georgia was granted an Intensified Dialogue on membership aspirations in September 2006.  At their Summit in Bucharest in April 2008, NATO leaders agreed that Georgia would become a member of the Alliance, and launched a period of intensive engagement with Georgia to address questions still outstanding pertaining to Georgia’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) application. Future decisions on when Georgia will move to the MAP stage and eventually to membership will be based on Georgia’s performance in implementing key reforms laid out in the IPAP.

Key milestones: