NATO Foreign Ministers welcome Georgia's Performance in Defence Reform
NATO Foreign Ministers gathered in Berlin with their Georgian counterpart to review progress in the NATO-Georgia relationship and look to future cooperation in the context of the NATO-Georgia Commission (NGC).
Allies thanked Minister Grigol Vashadze of Georgia for the substantial contribution to ISAF and welcomed Georgia’s strong performance in defence reform. Ministers also noted that the year 2011 will be key for putting forward more democratic reforms in Georgia and welcomed the NGC as a platform for dialogue on security issues and in particular on the efforts undertaken by Georgia towards enhancing security in the South Caucasus.
In his opening remarks of the NGC at ministerial level in Berlin, NATO's Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, stressed that "the NATO-Georgia relationship has deepened significantly in recent years. This has been to the benefit of NATO, of Georgia, and to the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole. And it has helped Georgia to play an increasingly important role as security contributor".
"Through the NATO-Georgia Commission, we have pursued a substantive and meaningful political dialogue. Through the Annual National Programme, specific and very effective programmes are now in place to support Georgia's defence and security sector reforms and put them in the context of wider democratic reforms", Rasmussen stated.