NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Javier Colomina visits Georgia.
According to a NATO official speaking to Europetime, this week, the NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Javier Colomina, has been in Georgia, a highly valued partner of the Alliance.
In addition, Mr. Colomina has been holding political consultations with high-level government officials, with members of the opposition, and with civil society.
„He has also visited the Administrative Boundary Line.
The visit has been an opportunity to restate NATO’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence—within internationally recognized borders—as well as its membership aspiration, and to discuss the implementation of the practical measures of support for Georgia agreed at the NATO Summit in Madrid this past June“, - a NATO official says.
At the Madrid Summit, NATO leaders agreed to deepen relationships with some of NATO’s closest partners, which joined the summit, among them Georgia.
The allies endorsed the set of measures. These tailored support measures are the expression of NATO’s strong political support for Georgia, its sovereignty and territorial integrity and NATO’s commitment to the Bucharest Summit decisions on Georgia’s eventual membership.
Measures in the tailored support package step up both political and practical support for Georgia.
- Javier Colomina: We are currently discussing what the tailored support should entail for Georgia and we expect them to be adopted at the Madrid Summit
This new package is designed to build Georgia’s capabilities and strengthen its resilience. These include Georgia’s increasing participation in NATO’s cyber exercises, strengthening security communications, and helping to develop critical infrastructure.
„We will continue to work on the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package (SNGP), which remains the main framework for our practical support for Georgia, including the issues of air defence, intelligence, crisis management and cyber defence. We will also be looking at adding a couple of new areas to the package. We will increase the frequency of our exercises and try to conduct them in two years instead of three. We will also see further synergies with other international organizations, delivering support to Georgia, including the European Union.
NATO also plans to provide additional personnel to this office, and we also have structures like Joint Training and Evaluation Center in Krtsanisi, which can be also further strengthened to provide additional support to Georgia. In the months ahead, our staff will be working closely with our Georgian counterparts to translate the measures decided in Madrid into a more detailed plan with the objectives and timelines“, - Alexander Vinnikov, Head of the NATO Liaison Office in Georgia, said this about the decisions made at the NATO Madrid Summit.
in the Strategic Concept, which was endorsed, the security of aspirant countries, including Georgia, is intertwined with the security of NATO allies. The Strategic Concept also reconfirms NATO’s commitment to its open-door policy and the decisions taken at the Bucharest Summit and subsequent summits.
