Joint press conference

with NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and Salome Zourabichvili, President of Georgia

  • 04 Oct. 2019 -
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  • Last updated: 04 Oct. 2019 14:57

(as delivered)

Madam President,

Thank you for your warm welcome, both your warm welcome and also that of your government to this beautiful city of Batumi.

We are very grateful for your hospitality, and for hosting the North Atlantic Council. Just as you said for very intensive several days here in Batumi.

Georgia is a unique partner for the Alliance. We are now celebrating five years of the Substantial NATO Georgia Package, as Madam President said.

In our discussion today we took stock of how much we have achieved and how we will deepen our cooperation in the years to come.

The Substantial NATO Georgia Package has been a success story.
It has strengthened your interoperability with NATO. And made your armed forces more capable.
But I also wanted to emphasize the degree to which all NATO Allies recognize the professionalism of the Georgian armed forces and the contribution that you are making to our operations and missions.
Allies have now decided to conduct a refresh as we call it or a strengthening of the package by 2020, updating and improving our cooperation.
In the past five years, we have established a Defence Institution Building School and Joint Training and Evaluation Centre.
And earlier this year, for the first time, the Centre, they call the JTEC, organized and led a multinational crisis response exercise, according to NATO procedures. This was a difficult task but they did it from start to finish and it was a success.

We are now building on this experience and preparing for the next NATO-Georgia exercise in 2022.

We are also developing our dialogue to and cooperation on the Black Sea region. We welcome your offer to continue providing logistical support to NATO and to the Allies.

And we are working with you to strengthen interoperability with your Coast Guard – including with the ongoing training of the Coast Guard boarding teams. And Madam president, it was such a pleasure to meet this morning. Again, truly truly professional members of your Coast Guard, who we had a chance to meet with this morning.

Madam President,

Georgia is demonstrating that it is an exporter of security. A net security provider. Your country remains the largest non-NATO troop contributor to our mission in Afghanistan. 

We welcome the reforms that you have put in place:
Strengthening your democratic institutions and the rule of law, and modernising your armed forces. We will work with you as you continue on this path.
We fully support Georgia’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, within its internationally recognised borders.
We call on Russia to reverse its recognition of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. These territories are an inherent part of Georgia and we will never recognize them as anything else.

Madam President,
Again, it is a pleasure to be with you here in Batumi. Let me thank you again for your warm hospitality.
At our Summit in Brussels last year, NATO leaders reconfirmed the Bucharest decisions from 2008. And yesterday that same reconfirmation was present in the statement that was released by the NATO-Georgia Commission. Georgia will become a member of NATO. That decision has not changed. And we are committed to continuing to work closely together to prepare your country for NATO membership.
Thank you very much, thank you Madam President.