Ministry of Defence of Georgia
March 28, 2015
Defence Minister Met with Acting Assistant Secretary General of NATO
Acting Assistant Secretary General of NATO on Public Diplomacy, Ted Whiteside pays a visit to Georgia. Minister of Defence of Georgia, Mindia Janelidze hosted the NATO official at the Defence Ministry today. Mindia Janelidze thanked Ted Whiteside for active support of the North Atlantic Alliance towards Georgia’s membership aspirations.
Importance of the Public Diplomacy and effective strategic communication on Georgia’s NATO integration path was the main topic of discussion. The sides talked about Georgia’s EU and Euro-Atlantic aspirations and implementation process of the NATO-Georgia Substantial Package. Georgia’s contribution to global security and professionalism of the Georgian military contingent was emphasized at the meeting.
“I am very pleased to be in Georgia. I’ve particularly appreciated the opportunity today to meet with the Minister of Defence and some of his key staff…NATO values very much the great number of Georgian contributions, particularly in Afghanistan. This has meant something not only to NATO but to the entire international community. Georgia can be very proud of this contribution and to other contributions it is making to the EU…It is a model for cooperation. I am very happy that NATO and Georgia are going to work on a Joint Training and Evaluation Center. There will be more NATO officials embedded here in Tbilisi, in the Ministry. This has been an excellent visit and reflects the great work done by the Georgian Ministry of Defence and more broadly by the Georgian Ministries,” Ted Whiteside said.
At the meeting the sides discussed the ongoing reforms at the Defence Ministry. Mindia Janelidze informed the NATO official about the defence transformation process with a focus on transparency and accountability that is one of the priorities of the Defence Ministry.
“We had a very fruitful discussion on our future cooperation with NATO and how to raise the awareness about the Georgian Armed Forces in NATO member countries. We have outlined concrete initiatives. Of course we support these initiatives and plan to expand cooperation in strategic communication field. We also discussed transparency issues. Defence Minister has achieved high level of transparency and we will maintain this standard and enhance communication with the public not only about NATO but about the ongoing defence reforms,” Mindia Janelidze said.
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