“We warmly welcome Georgia’s EU candidate status but Georgia equally focuses on its intention to join NATO and the UK is a strong supporter of that,” said British Ambassador to Georgia, Mark Clayton.

The Ambassador attended an event on Georgia’s relations with NATO where a document was presented about what Georgia needs to do to progress on NATO membership.

“I am really pleased to be here on behalf of the United Kingdom where we are looking at Georgia’s relations with NATO. There has been a huge amount of focus recently on Georgia’s EU candidate status and we warmly welcome that but Georgia equally focuses on its intention to join NATO and the UK is a strong supporter of that. We are NATO’s contact point alongside allies from Romania involved in public work to promote the benefits of NATO membership to Georgia.

The paper that has been presented today covers two areas very well. And I think these are the areas Georgia has to look at to continue its progress on NATO membership: The first is to continue progress on democracy and reforms, just like the EU. This is very important for NATO. NATO is a political military alliance, a lot of attention goes on tanks but respect for democracy is the core of the organization. That is where Georgia needs to continue to work similarly with the military line. The paper that we will hear today focuses more on what Georgia can do to contribute to collective security,” he said.