News

The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with President Giorgi Margvelashvili on Friday (9 March 2018) and thanked him for Georgia’s remarkable contributions to international security and to NATO operations and missions, including the contribution to the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and to the NATO Response Force. He commended Georgia for the progress in implementing important reforms that will strengthen Georgia’s democracy and rule of law. He encouraged Georgia to continue on this path.

As the armed forces of various countries open up more positions to women, striving for gender equality and reducing barriers for the meaningful participation of women in the military is increasingly important. The Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme supports a project to improve the conditions of women in Georgia’s armed forces.

NATO Foreign Ministers reaffirmed their practical and political support for Georgia today (Wednesday 6 December) as well as their commitment to Georgia’s eventual membership of the Alliance.

NATO has successfully completed a three-year project to clear unexploded ordnance from an ammunition depot in central Georgia. A closing ceremony for the Georgia IV NATO Trust Fund project was held on 7 November 2017 in Tbilisi, attended by more than 70 guests including NATO and partner nations’ Ambassadors and Defence Attaches, as well as senior NATO and Georgian Government representatives.

NATO Allies and partners have helped Georgia contain a major forest fire in the Samtskhe-Javakheti Region of Georgia. Recognising that inhabited areas could be at risk, the Georgian authorities approached NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) for assistance on 29 August 2017. Shortly thereafter, assets from NATO Allies and partners were on the scene: Turkey provided one firefighting aircraft and two helicopters; Azerbaijan provided a firefighting helicopter; and Ukraine provided a firefighting aircraft. By Friday (1 September 2017), the fire had been contained.

A major forest fire started near Daba village, Borjomi Municipality (Georgia) on 20 August at 14:00. The mountainous terrain and strong winds makes it extremely difficult to bring the fire under control. Situation is critical. The affected area covers about 35 hectares of forest. On 22 August 2017, EADRCC received a request for assistance from Georgia regarding these forest and wild fires.

Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller outlined the decisions taken by Allied leaders last week in a keynote speech to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Tbilisi on Monday (29 May 2017). She highlighted that the Alliance is stepping up in the fight against terrorism and making progress on fairer burden-sharing across NATO.

Current security challenges and how effective public diplomacy can contribute to addressing them were the main focus of the Public Diplomacy Forum in Tbilisi on 10-11 April. Discussions covered a range of topics including hybrid warfare, strategies to counter propaganda, strategic communications and the role of social media.

NATO does not recognize the so-called presidential elections nor the so-called referendum held in the South Ossetia region of Georgia this Sunday.

For the second time since 2014, the NATO Military Committee visited Georgia. During the two-day trip (2 & 3 March), NATO’s Military Representatives met with the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package (SNGP) team to receive a progress report, visited the Joint NATO-Georgia Training and Evaluation Centre (JTEC) and observed a pre-deployment training demonstration of Georgian troops. The Military Committee and its Chairman, General Petr Pavel, also visited the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL).