Today, at the Vilnius summit, NATO partners reaffirmed their strong commitment to Georgia, their unwavering support for Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, and that Georgia’s efforts to make a significant contribution to strengthening global security are highly valued, said the Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ilia Darchiashvili, remarking on the communique adopted at the NATO summit in Vilnius.

Georgia, he says, has a highly active bilateral cooperation agenda with NATO that will continue in the future.

“The primary message from NATO’s summit in Vilnius is that NATO’s doors are open to partners. We had a really engaging NATO ministerial meeting, attended by Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Georgia. We recall the previous ministerial meeting in Bucharest when there was a lively debate, and Georgia got crucial signals from its partners. As our people are aware, our primary foreign policy focus is Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Accordingly, at the Vilnius summit today, NATO members reaffirmed their strong support for Georgia. Our territorial integrity and sovereignty have received tremendous backing, and Georgia’s efforts to make a substantial contribution to improving global security are greatly appreciated. Our partners assess this appropriately. This, I believe, is also a crucial message.

Georgia, as previously stated, has a highly active agenda for bilateral cooperation with NATO. This process will continue in the future. We have enough provisions in place to guarantee that Georgia’s accession to NATO is a worthwhile process that contributes to global security. We will keep on working with our partners.

One of the most pressing challenges in Georgia is the ambitious reform agenda. On the reform path, we are strengthening our foreign policy goals toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration. This is our everyday work in order to keep these reforms going and achieve actual, tangible results in the direction of our primary foreign policy goals. We had a really valuable and results-oriented Madrid summit last year. Already this year in Vilnius, we have received unwavering support from our partners. “The Vilnius summit will undoubtedly provide an important momentum for NATO-Georgia bilateral cooperation,” stated Ilia Darchiashvili.

According to Georgian FM, the focus of today’s NATO summit was on Ukraine, a war-torn country with major security concerns.

“The key message was delivered to Ukraine by the partners because Ukraine’s support is currently one of the partners’ top priorities. The Alliance emphasized that Ukraine has the solid backing of its partners, which will continue in the future. The communiqué itself clearly demonstrates that the partners are going out of their way to guarantee that Ukraine receives their support,” Darchiashvili stated.

Vilnius Summit Communiqué reads: “We reiterate the decision made at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Georgia will become a member of the Alliance with the Membership Action Plan (MAP) as an integral part of the process; we reaffirm all elements of that decision, as well as subsequent decisions. To advance its Euro-Atlantic aspirations, Georgia must make progress on reforms, including key democratic reforms, and make best use of the ANP.”