UK delegation visited Ministry of Defence
Thursday, May 7
Minister of Defence of Georgia Tinatin Khidasheli met with the UK Defence and Security Advisor in the Cross Government Security and Justice Group Mr. David Clarke and the UK Defence Attache to Georgia LTC Nick Wilkes. The UK Special Defence Advisor to Defence Minister Stephen Glover attended the meeting as well. At the introductory meeting, the Minister briefed the visitors about the future plans.
One of the key topics of discussion was implementing the Substantial Package granted to Georgia at the NATO Wales Summit. The sides highlighted the significance of the United Kingdom’s support in the Package implementation process. “The Georgian Ministry of Defence and the Georgian state in general carry on an intensive cooperation with the UK for a lot of years. The UK’s support to Georgia is important especially in the field of defence. The British side is actively involved in the realization of one of the components of the Substantial Package”-outlined Minister Tinatin Khidasheli.
The British side reaffirmed its support of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations: “we made a point of ensuring that we will offer as much assistance as we can to our Georgian friends and continue cooperation. We talked about some of the hurdles which we understand there are still to face for Georgia. The Minister identified a couple of very early areas and her priorities which was very good to hear. We look forward to more we could help to but also injecting new ideas and hopefully helping Georgia even further in its Euro-Atlantic integration,” said LTC Nick Wilkes.
The Minister of Defence highlighted the importance of the ongoing reorganization in the MoD, the issues of resource management, defence policy improvement and nutrition in the armed forces. Minister also stressed the significance of sharing experience in international security and military education areas.
During the bilateral meeting, the sides referred to the upcoming visits of the high-level UK military and civil representatives to Georgia. The sides also focused on intensification of bilateral cooperation between the defence ministries of Georgia and the United Kingdom.
