NATO-Georgia relations going in right direction, NATO Represantive for Caucasus

The NATO representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia on Thursday described the alliance’s relations with Georgia as “going in the right direction.”

Now both sides needed to reinforce the success, said James Appathurai, former NATO spokesman and now the NATO secretary-general’s special representative for the Caucasus and Centra Asia.

While meeting Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi, the NATO envoy praised Georgia’s participation in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan and discussed with the host future NATO-Georgia cooperation.

Appathurai assured Saakashvili the NATO Bucharest Summit promise to include Georgia in the western military alliance was still valid.

During a joint press briefing with Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze, Appathurai said Georgia had been working very hard to meet the NATO membership requirements and there had been steady and clear progress. But there was “more to do,” he said.

Appathurai told local media a foreign ministerial NATO-Georgia Commission meeting would be held on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers meeting slated for April 14-15.

The NATO envoy described the scheduled commission meeting as “a sign of development and maturity of the relationship between NATO and Georgia.”