NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia

What are the Special Representative’s main duties?

The Special Representative provides advice to the Secretary General on how best to achieve NATO’s goals, and how best to address the security concerns of NATO’s partners, in the two regions. The Special Representative is responsible for the overall coordination of NATO’s partnership policy in the two regions, and works closely with regional leaders to enhance their cooperation with the Alliance. 

Which countries are NATO’s partners in the regions? 

In the Caucasus, NATO works with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (which are effectively the South Caucasus). 
In Central Asia, the Alliance has partnerships with Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

How does the Special Representative promote partnership? 

The Special Representative liaises with senior officials from partner governments in the two regions, advising them on their overall process of reform and how best to use NATO partnership tools to implement those reforms. 

In order to ensure coordination of assistance programmes, the Special Representative also maintains relationships with representatives of the international community and other international organisations engaged in the two regions.

The Special Representative promotes understanding about NATO and security issues more generally through engaging with the media and civil society in the two regions.

The Special Representative provides high-level support for the work of the NATO Liaison Officer for the South Caucasus in Tbilisi, Georgia. Previously, the Special Representative also supported the NATO Liaison Officer for Central Asia (based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan until 2017, when practical liaison with the five Central Asian partners was shifted to NATO Headquarters and the NATO military structures). They also worked closely with the NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan (based in Kabul, Afghanistan until 2021) to ensure NATO’s policy in Central Asia supported NATO’s mission in Afghanistan.

When and why was the position created? 

The position of Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia was created on an ad-hoc basis following the decision taken by NATO Allies at the Istanbul Summit in June 2004 to place a special focus on the strategically important regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia. A key element of this special focus was enhanced liaison arrangements, including the appointment of the Special Representative and two NATO Liaison Officers, one for each region.

NATO Liaison Officer for the South Caucasus/Head of the NATO Liaison Office in Georgia

162 Tsinamdzgvrishvili
0112 Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel.: +995 (32) 293 38 01