NATO Deputy SecGen: ‘Georgia Has Made Tremendous Progress’
Deputy NATO Secretary General, Rose Gottemoeller said at the 64th Annual Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Halifax, Canada, that the Alliance’s partnership with Georgia and Ukraine is “very important,” and that NATO’s door remains open for the countries.
“Ukraine and Georgia [are] very much on the track to NATO membership; both countries have more work to do; they need to continue to pursue the path of reform,” Gottemoeller said in the Q&A session on November 19.
She also underscored that the two countries’ should not be grouped together because they are on “very different places in their development and in their reform processes.”
The Deputy SG said “Georgia has made tremendous progress and is working very closely together with NATO,” and that the country has been “exemplary” in terms of its defense spending and “its acquisition of all practical tools and terms of being along the road to preparing for NATO membership.”
The Deputy SG also hailed the country’s role in the Afghanistan mission, and highlighted its “enormous importance” in assisting the Alliance’s exercises in the Black Sea region.
According to the Deputy SG, military cooperation is “very important” for reaching consensus about Georgia’s NATO membership, but, it is also very important “to continue developing consultation and deep and intense interaction at the political level as well.”
Members of Georgia’s Parliamentary Delegation to NATO PA, Irakli Sesiashvili, Sophio Katsarava and Giorgi Kandelaki also attended the annual session.
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