Batumi Hosts 5th North Atlantic Council Meeting

On October 3-4, Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi is hosting the 5th North Atlantic Council Meeting, which is unprecedented as the Council has never held meetings in a partner nation, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said. 

The North Atlantic Council (NAC), which is the principal political decision-making body of NATO, is paying a visit to Georgia at the invitation of the local government. 

Deputy Secretary-General of NATO Rose Gottemoeller is heading the delegation comprised of Permanent Representatives of the 29 Member States of the Alliance.

Within the framework of the visit, the NATO-Georgia Commission will hold a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister of Georgia and the Deputy Secretary-General of NATO.

The North Atlantic Committee and the Deputy Secretary-General of NATO, for her part, will hold bilateral meetings with the President of Georgia, Prime Minister, Chairman and officials of the Georgian Government. Meetings will be conducted with representatives of the non-governmental sector. The North Atlantic Council will visit two Georgian coast guard vessels in the Batumi Port. On the sidelines of the visit, the Deputy Secretary-General of NATO will deliver a lecture at the Batumi State University that is highly important in terms of increasing awareness and involvement of students, the young generation. The Chairman of the Ajara Government will also speak before the attending audience.

Within the frames of the visit, discussions will focus on all issues relating to Georgia’s membership of the Alliance with a special accent on the political dialogue between NATO and Georgia and on the need to further deepen the practical cooperation, including in terms of strengthening Black Sea security.

“The NAC is paying its fifth visit to Georgia, which is unprecedented in the history of Georgia’s cooperation with the Council’s partner countries and is clear evidence of the successively increasing level of relations and intense cooperation between Georgia and the Alliance.
 
“Georgia, as one of the most devoted and interoperable partners of NATO, attaches paramount importance to this visit of the North Atlantic Council and its unconditional political support for Georgia’s membership of the Alliance that provides yet further proof of the irreversibility of Georgia’s NATO integration process,” the MFA Georgia said.

By Ana Dumbadze 

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