NATO HQ 26 July 2006

Opening statements by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the Prime Minister of Georgia, Zurab Nogaideli in the North Atlantic Council JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER (Secretary General, NATO): Good morning, good morning. Let me start this meeting by extending a very warm welcome to Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli of Georgia and his delegation of course. Prime Minister we are pleased to see you back again here in the North Atlantic Council. During your last visit to this body, which took place in November last year, you'll remember and we'll remember that we had a substantive exchange on the state of reforms in Georgia and on Georgia's considerable progress in implementing its individual Partnership Action Plan with the Alliance. Allies of course recognize Georgia's ambitions with regard to its relationship with NATO and follow very closely the development in your country, and in particular of course as we had the opportunity already to discuss a moment ago, the ongoing reform process. As we have discussed on previous occasions and as you Prime Minister are very well aware, the process of integration into Euro-Atlantic structures and institutions including NATO is a performance driven one and there is therefore a high degree of interest in the developments in Georgia among the members of this council and I'm sure you'll notice this during our session this morning. Prime Minister let me now in the presence of the media extend the floor to you for a few introductory remarks. Prime Minister and delegation a warm welcome to all of you once again. ZURAB NOGHAIDELI (Prime Minister, Georgia): Thank you; thank you very much Mr. Secretary General. Thank you very much Ambassadors and thank you everybody who is presently here. We are really glad to be here in North Atlantic Council. We have made it clear that for us number one foreign policy objective is to join NATO at nearest future, nearest possible future, and this is why we are so often here. We hope that you are not fed up with us yet. I will present to you the recent developments in Georgia; the most important reforms, the most important challenges we face and the solutions; and certainly I will answer all the questions you will have. And thank you, thank you again very much; we are very glad to be here in NATO headquarters. DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Prime Minister thank you very much indeed. May I now ask the representatives of the media to leave the room and then we'll start our closed session?