Opening remarks
by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the NATO-Georgia Commission at the level of Defence Minister
Welcome once again, we are ready to start.
And ladies and gentlemen, at our Summit in Wales, we agreed a substantial package of support to Georgia.
Work is now ongoing in all areas of that package.
In Tbilisi, NATO and Georgian officers are working together to strengthen Georgia’s ability to defend itself.
The new Joint Training and Evaluation Centre will start tactical training of Georgian officers in May.
Today, we will review the progress that we have made.
We will examine what more NATO can do to intensify our support.
And we will discuss the regional security environment.
Georgia is an independent, sovereign nation with internationally recognised borders.
Yet Russia continues to violate those borders.
I call on Russia to reverse its recognition of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of Georgia as independent states.
Georgia is committed to political and security reform.
To improve its own security.
And to bring it closer to NATO membership.
Georgia is one of our closest partners.
And we are committed to deepening that partnership.
With that, I thank the members of the press media and we end this public part of our session. So if you leave we can continue but we will not continue before you leave.