Direct Way To Membership NATO Special Caucasus Envoy Ends Georgia Visit

Rustavi 2
July 10, 2014
Appathurai sums up his visit to Georgia
NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai summed up his visit to Georgia briefly after his departure from Tbilisi.
`Just finished important visit to Georgia. After discussions on `the package`, I`m confident NATO`s Wales Summit will agree on steps that will see a) more NATO in Georgia (probably more so than in any other non-Ally; b) more Georgia in NATO`s discussions, exercises and courses; and c) a clear confirmation that Georgia continues to move closer to NATO. Now settling in to support the Netherlands, before the flight home!`Appathurai posted on facebook.
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Civil Georgia
July 9, 2014
NATO Envoy, Georgian Officials Discuss Details of ‘Substantive Package’
NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai, is holding talks with the Georgian leadership in Tbilisi on July 9 to discuss details of closer cooperation NATO intends to offer to Georgia at the Alliance’s summit in Wales in September.
At its summit in Wales, NATO will not offer to Georgia a membership action plan (MAP) – a phase, which as NATO decided at its Bucharest summit in 2008 should be the next step for Georgia on its “direct way to membership”. Instead NATO foreign ministers decided in late June to offer Georgia, as NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen put it, a “substantive package” to help the country “come closer” to NATO.
“I’ve come because I have been assigned by the Secretary General to work with the Georgian government to fill the package that was opened by the foreign ministers meeting,” Appathurai told journalists after meeting with Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze in Tbilisi on July 9.
“I am quite confident that what we will see at the [Wales] summit are decisions that will lead to even more NATO presence in Georgia, that will lead to even more Georgian presence in NATO’s discussions, in NATO’s programs and activities and that will continue to move Georgia forward along the path that was decided in Bucharest,” Appathurai said, referring to 2008 Bucharest summit decision that Georgia will join the Alliance sometime in the future.
“There is still a lot of work to do, but actually I am quite confident that there will be real substance and real progress by the time we get to the summit,” Appathurai added.
Foreign Minister Panjikidze said that in short the package can be described as “more Georgia in NATO and more NATO in Georgia.”
“This package contains very concrete and very practical and important elements, such as increasing our self-defense capabilities, our engagement in strategic dialogues, our participation at a higher level in NATO, etc,” Panjikidze said.
Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, who also met Appathurai on July 9, said: “This package consists of number of elements. With these proposals Georgia will be more protected and secure, and it will be a step forwards for Georgia’s membership in NATO. Everything is being done in order to make Georgia a NATO member state in the nearest future.”

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Rustavi 2
July 9, 2014
James Appathurai meets with Georgian Defence Minister

Minister of Defence of Georgia Irakli Alasania has met with the NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai today. The goal of the two-day official visit of the NATO envoy to Georgia is to discuss the preparatory works prior to the NATO Summit of Wales and the details of the Substantive Package – a new action plan granted to Georgia as the next step of cooperation with the Alliance.

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