Senior NATO official and civil emergency planning team visit Georgia

During his visit, Mr Simmons met with senior Georgian Government and Parliamentary representatives, including the Prime Minister, Foreign and Defence Ministers, and the Chairman of the Parliament. He also took the opportunity to visit a centre for Internally Displaced Persons on the outskirts of Tbilisi to hear the experiences of some of those people most affected by the recent conflict.

In these meetings, Mr. Simmons reiterated NATO’s support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and NATO’s standpoint that Russia must adhere in full to the cease-fire agreement without further delay.

During his visit, Mr. Simmons briefed his counterparts on the Alliance’s  response to Georgian requests for assistance and had an exchange of views with the Georgian authorities on the establishment of the NATO-Georgia Commission proposed at the Foreign Minister’s meeting last week. In addition, Mr Simmons had discussions about the upcoming visit of the North Atlantic Council, scheduled to visit Georgia in September.

Mr Simmons also discussed assistance agreed by the Foreign Ministers with regard to support in defence planning.  The Alliance will assist the Georgian Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces to consider their priority needs and to provide a full assessment of the Georgian air picture with a view to ensure the safety of air traffic.

“As a long-standing partner of NATO, Georgia has asked for assistance during this difficult period, and NATO has responded. We will continue to provide political support for Georgia through our existing partnership programmes and complement this with the NATO-Georgia Commission. NATO will also provide practical support through our emergency and humanitarian response capabilities in order to help get services and economic activity back on track” said Mr Simmons.  “NATO’s leaders have made it clear that they will stand-by Georgia and there is much to be done in the coming weeks and months. My visit is just the first step in NATO’s support”.

Mr Simmons was joined in Tbilisi by a NATO Civil Emergency Planning Advisory Support team, comprising fifteen experts from ten different Allies, specialised in various aspects of civil emergency planning. The team spent several days working closely with the Georgian authorities in order to assess the damage caused by the military action and to identify priority areas to help restore critical services for public life. The team looked at the infrastructure most affected by the conflict, including the road and rail networks, the civilian airports and other key areas including water and sanitation.