“We’ll do whatever we can to help Georgia, but we are grateful for the constructive role that Georgia has played,” NATO Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai exclusively told the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB).

According to the NATO official, the security environment in the region has changed very fundamentally.

“One of the things I’d like to do is compliment the Georgian government for having played a very important role in allowing Azerbaijan and Armenia to come to an agreement on exchange of prisoners and maps of unexploded ordinance. I think Georgia is really demonstrating its value or the added value it has and can have when it comes to regional security,” Appathurai said.

According to the NATO Secretary-General’s Special Representative, it’s even more Russian troops around Georgia after the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

“We also recognize that what happened during and after the Nagorno-Karabakh war, the short war has not improved the security environment for Georgia in this region. Now there are Russian troops in Azerbaijan, and it’s even more Russian troops around Georgia. And to be honest, I think the Azerbaijanis also see the Russian presence as temporary. That’s the agreement. I think it’s a five-year period. So, we’re discussing the situation with our Georgian colleagues, the Deputy Defense Minister was just in NATO, and we discussed that together. I’ll discuss it when I’m here. We’ll do whatever we can to help Georgia, but we are grateful for the constructive role that Georgia has played,” James Appathurai exclusively told GPB.