News

Members of the North Atlantic Council, including Lithuanian Ambassador Linas Linkevičius, are visiting Georgia on 15 and 16 September. On the first day of the visit, 26 NATO Ambassadors met with President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. During the visit, NATO and Georgia signed the document on the establishment of the NATO-Georgia Commission. The decision to develop NATO-Georgia Commission was adopted by NATO foreign ministers at their extraordinary meeting on 19 August 2008.

The Commission will underpin Georgia’s efforts to take forward its political, economic, and defence-related reforms that are related to its Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO.

It is stated in the document that the NATO-Georgia Commission would not replace the existing tools for NATO-Georgia cooperation, but would assist Georgia in its preparations to move to the Membership Action Plan (MAP) stage and eventually to its membership in the Alliance itself. It was agreed that the Commission would hold regular meetings at the level of Ambassadors. In addition, the NATO-Georgia Commission will convene at the level of Heads of State and Government, Foreign Ministers, Defence Ministers and Chiefs of Defence.

The Partnership for Peace (PfP) Trust Fund, which will assist Georgia in the destruction of old missile stockpiles and rockets, was also launched in Tbilisi on 15 September. Lithuania together with Latvia and Estonia are participating as lead nations in the Trust Fund project.

During the ceremony that marked the start of the Trust Fund project, Ambassador L.Linkevičius indicated that the Baltic States, just as all of the Alliance, supported Georgia in the face of aggression against the country. The Baltic States are considering a possibility to expand the Partnership for Peace project, so that it would involve clearing the mines, which remained after the conflict in the territory of Georgia.

On 16 September, the North Atlantic Council will hold meetings with members of the Georgian Parliament, regional representatives from the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and non-governmental organisations, as well as Council will visit the city of Gori, which was damaged during the military conflict.