Defense Minister signed agreement with France

By Tatia Megeneishvili

Monday, July 13

MBDA, founded in 2001 is a world leader in missiles and missile systems, is a multi-national group with 10,000 employees working across France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Spain and the United States. It has three major aeronautical and defence shareholders - Airbus Group (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%) and Finmeccanica (25%) - and is the first truly integrated European defence company

Minister of Defense of Georgia Tinatin Khidasheli signed the second contract with European missile manufacturer MBDA to buy a state-of-the-art defense system.

The agreement was signed in Paris on July 10 by the Khidasheli and, CEO of MBDA Antoine Bouvier, a consortium that includes Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA, Airbus Group and Britain’s BAE Systems Plc.

The agreement came into force on July 10 and its implementation will start on January 1 2016. As the Defense Minister said, the signing of the agreement with the French side could not happen without the political will.

Khidasheli, in the frames of Le Bourget Aviation Exhibition, signed the first stage of an agreement with the French side over the purchase of defense weapons in June.

The process was launched during the tenure of former Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, and stirred much controversy.

“We have completed the second stage and signed an agreement today. The French side demonstrated outstanding partnership, endeavour and trust. Such decisions are not taken without the political will as the position was not clear with regard to Georgia. After the signature of the agreement we can freely say that there is no embargo imposed on Georgia. We have achieved several goals. We could make diversification of the topic and create fundamental base to negotiate with our partners about any issue. I am happy with the content as well as with the political importance of the both treaties,” stated Khidasheli.

Khidasheli thanked the French Government and French companies for their high level of trust expressed towards Georgia.

“I would like to thank France and these companies that the process was implemented with high level of trust in partnership and desire for our success. This is demonstrated on each page and article of the document,” she stated.

Khidasheli will discuss the issue of making the part of the agreement public with the Commander-in-Chief and Trust Group format in the Parliament of Georgia.