Kevin Hamilton: Military-to-military cooperation, institution-to-institution cooperation between NATO and Georgia is strong and continues, no backsliding observed

“The military-to-military cooperation, institution-to-institution cooperation between NATO and Georgia is strong and continues, and there really hasn’t been any backsliding in that space,” said Kevin Hamilton, ​the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, in an interview with the GPB’s First Channel.

Kevin Hamilton responded to the question: “You mentioned that there were some setbacks in NATO-Georgia relations. What would be a step by the Georgian government that NATO would perceive as a step towards improving relations?”

“Let me back up and get to first principles, which is, military-to-military cooperation, institution-to-institution cooperation between NATO and Georgia is strong and continues, and there really hasn’t been any backsliding in that space.

But at the political level and in the case of governance, we at NATO, several allies have concerns about what has happened here domestically in the past couple of years, and particularly some of the rhetoric that we have heard not so much directed at NATO, but directed at the West and the European Union.

But these two institutions are indivisible. We are different institutions, of course, and we have different objectives and interests, but 23 members of the European Union are also NATO allies. And so, our hope and our expectation is that the Georgian government is ready to engage in a more sophisticated dialogue so we can get the relationship back on track,” he said.

Answering the question, “Did you receive a response to these concerns and expectations from the Foreign Minister during yesterday’s meeting?” Kevin Hamilton responded: “I certainly heard an openness to this proposal, and I was encouraged by what I heard.”