Georgian PM Summarizes Munich Security Conference
The 2020 Munich Security Conference
The Georgian delegation led by Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and consisting of Vice PM Tea Tsulukiani, Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani and Defense Minister Irakli Garibashvili, held high-level meetings within the framework of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2020, which was held on February 14-16.
The Georgian PM summarized their participation in the MSC with journalists, highlighting that Georgia's growing role in the European security architecture and Black Sea security context was well demonstrated at the event.
“We all had our timetables and each of these three days was used very actively by each member of the government,” Gakharia said. “In his opening remarks, Wolfgang Ischinger, the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, emphasized Georgia’s important role and said that the European security architecture is unimaginable without the security of Georgia and Ukraine. This is important narrative and is a topic that we also brought up on the sidelines of the conference".
The head of the government noted that the most important meeting was held with US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, seeing a detailed discussion of the bilateral cooperation in the field of security and joint projects in the field of defense.
“In November 2019, the programs we are implementing in cooperation with the US were upgraded. We also discussed Georgia's contribution to Afghanistan and international security. It was a key meeting in order to discuss cooperation plans in the coming years in terms of security and defense,” the PM noted.
Gakharia added that other important bilateral meetings were also held within the MSC, which mainly focused on Georgia's role in European security architecture.
“Georgia's growing role in the context of Black Sea security and cybersecurity is already evident. These are areas where our responsibility is growing and Georgia must be a reliable and stable partner,” he stressed.
The Prime Minister also spoke about his meeting with ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda which is held annually at the Munich Security Conference.
He said he reiterated at the meeting that it was of utmost importance for the Georgian side to investigate the facts of ethnic cleansing of Georgians during the 2008 war and catastrophic humanitarian violations against civilians as quickly as possible.
"We noted at the meeting that it is of the utmost importance for us to investigate these catastrophic violations as quickly as possible, confirmed by the Hague Court, and said that Georgia will spare no effort to be a responsible partner in this regard," the Prime Minister said.
"We were honored to participate in the Munich Security Conference, the world’s leading forum for international security, to strengthen our direct communications with our partners and discuss the security challenges of the 21st century," he concluded.
In his separate meetings with his counterparts from Poland, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic and Croatia, FM Zalkaliani spoke of deepening bilateral ties.
On his part, Defense Minister Garibashvili met with his US, Canadian, Montenegrin, Latvian, Swiss and Greek counterparts.
By Ana Dumbadze