Government Briefs MPs over IPAP Implementation

Representatives from the Interior, Defense Foreign Ministries, as well as from the National Security Council are briefing parliamentarians over the implementation of Georgia?s Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO at the hearing of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security on March 4.

Hearing is held beyond the closed doors. ?IPAP is classified, hence the meeting will be closed for journalists,? MP Givi Targamadze, the Chairman of the Defense and Security Committee told reporters.

The North Atlantic Council, which is the decision-making body of NATO, approved Georgia?s IPAP, which establishes specific defense and political reform goals for Georgian government, last October.

Romualds Razuks of Latvia, the NATO liaison officer in the Caucasus, who is based in Tbilisi, also attends the Parliamentary Committee hearing.

Last June, the governments from NATO states decided at the Istanbul Summit to make a special focus on the Caucasus and Central Asia. To implement this decision, Robert Simmons, a special representative for these two regions, has been appointed. In addition, two NATO liaison officers, who are in close cooperation with the NATO?s special envoy, were permanently stationed in each of the two regions.

Romualds Razuks said before the hearing started, that his activities in Georgia will be directed towards speeding up of Georgia?s integration into NATO.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security Givi Targamadze said that that Parliament will ?closely monitor implementation of the IPAP.?

?We will be very strict in our assessments towards those Ministries, which will hamper implementation of this very important document,? he added.

Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said in an interview with the Rustavi 2 television station on March 4 that representatives from NATO ?will visit Georgia next week to assess implementation of IPAP.?