Defense Minister Irakli Gharibashvili met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Georgia, Kelly Degnan.

During the meeting the sides discussed ways of further strengthening existing U.S.-Georgia strategic partnership and cooperation in defence sphere.

Irakli Gharibashvili introduced Kelly Degnan with the long-term plan for the development of the Defense Forces, which envisages strengthening defense capabilities, modernizing armaments, increasing training-oriented exercises on territorial defense and deterrence policy, strengthening air defense and armament policy, and strengthening total anti-military capabilities.

Special focus was made on important directions of cooperation aimed at strengthening defence capabilities of Georgia – Georgia Defence Readiness Program (GDRP), increased Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and increased scale of joint military exercises. Georgia’s contribution to global peace and security was also highlighted at the meeting. The talks also focused on bilateral defense consultations (BDC) between Georgia and the United States.

At the meeting, US Ambassador expressed support for the ongoing successful reforms in the Georgian Defence Forces and readiness to further deepen cooperation.