President Calls for National Security Council Session
TBILISI – President Giorgi Margvelashvili held a National Security Council (NSC) meeting on Thursday afternoon.
The NSC press service reports that the key issues of the meeting were:
- The Black Sea Regional Security Environment.
- Georgia-NATO relations: Georgia’s participation in the Black Sea Security Dialogue and cooperation formats; and Georgia-NATO partnership agenda.
- Reforms in the Defense Ministry.
- Georgia’s National Security System against the background of hybrid threats and Georgian President’s initiative: Georgia’s National Security – Unite National Approach.
“We spoke about upcoming the Brussels summit and steps that need to be taken in this direction. An important task is that the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Security Council, the Prime Minister and the President act together to draw our partners’ attention to the issues of Georgia at this summit," President said after the session.
The NSC Secretary, Davit Rakviashvili, said that the security issues of Georgia and the whole Black Sea Region were also discussed at the meeting.
“The recent developments in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia are connected to the militarization of the region by Russia, which is aimed at diminishing the security architecture in the Black Sea region,” Rakviashvili said.
The National Security Council is an advisory body to the President of Georgia, and is empowered to consider issues determined by the Organic Law on National Security Council of Georgia to draft highest political decisions. It was set up mainly to organize the military development and defense of the country. The President of Georgia is the head the National Security Council and approves its structure, its personnel, and regulations concerning the Office and its subdivisions.
The regular statutory attendees of the National Security Council are the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Defense Minister, the Interior Minister, the Finance Minister, and the Secretary of the National Security Council. The Speaker of Parliament and the Head of the State Security Service (SSS) also participate regularly in the working of National Security Council.
Thursday’s meeting was not attended by the SSS Head, the Foreign Minister, and the Interior Minister, who are not in Georgia at present. The Parliament Speaker, Irakli Kobakhidze and the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the parliament, Sopo Katsarava, were also absent. They were attending the parliament session in Kutaisi, West Georgia.
The opposition criticized the Speaker for not attending the meeting and accused the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) of “ignoring” the presidential institution, while the majority criticized the president for appointing the meeting that day, when many NSC permanent members would not be able to attend the meeting due to various reasons.
By Thea Morrison