“We deeply believe that NATO needs Georgia as much as we need it,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili echoed the 72nd anniversary of NATO on Facebook.

As the Prime Minister notes, Georgia made significant progress in cooperation with the Alliance.

“The founding principle of NATO states that the well-being of society is impossible without freedom and security. Their collective provision through political and military means is the essential goal of the organization.

The aspiration for NATO membership, Georgia’s top foreign and security policy priority, is based on a broad public and political consensus, as enshrined in the Constitution.

In cooperation with the Alliance, Georgia has made significant progress in terms of democracy development and military infrastructure improvement.

Our government has further deepened and strengthened this cooperation, based on the principle ‘More NATO in Georgia and more Georgia in NATO’.

Today, Georgia is one of NATO’s closest and the most reliable partners. Our military contributes to peacekeeping operations, be it the NATO Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan or the EU missions in the Central African Republic and Mali.

We are ready to share the responsibility of collective defence fully.

I told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg when we met that it is time for Georgia to advance in NATO.

We believe that the expansion towards the Black Sea is a necessary condition for European and world security. NATO needs Georgia as much as we need it,” reads the statement by PM Garibashvili.