NATO-Georgia: A Pause in the Integration Process?
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 18 Issue: 109
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili (Source: NATO)
In early July, James Appathurai, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, held a series of top-level meetings in Georgia.
The Georgian authorities greeted their guest from Brussels warmly and with much fanfare. President Salome Zurabishvili awarded Appathurai with the Order of the Golden Fleece for his special contribution to strengthening NATO-Georgian relations and his support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity (Civil.ge, July 3). Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili tweeted that he and the NATO envoy discussed Tbilisi’s cooperation with the Alliance, Black Sea security, as well as Georgia’s significant achievements along its Euro-Atlantic path and the need to move forward on the political dimensions of the integration process (Twitter.com/GharibashviliGe, July 2). In turn, Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani described Appathurai as “a big friend of Georgia, who has done his utmost to make Georgia’s NATO integration progress irreversible.” The top Georgian diplomat added that the NATO summit in Brussels last month (June 14) again reaffirmed the Alliance’s open door policy toward Georgia, and he assured that his country already possesses all the practical instruments needed to eventually join NATO (Agenda.ge, July 2).