The Minister of National Defence Dimitris Avramopoulos met his Georgian counterpart Irakli Alasania, who pays a three-day official visit to Greece, at the Ministry of National Defence today.
In the meeting, was conducted a comprehensive review of matters of mutual interest and was signed the Military Cooperation Programme for the year 2014 between Greece and Georgia at the presence of the two ministers. The Programme includes issues of training Georgian Armed Forces personnel in the Multinational Peace Support Operations Training Centre, Kilkis, and in Hellenic Army Training Centres, as well as their participation in the international conference “ATHENA 2014”.
After the talks between the delegations of the two countries and the private meeting between the two Ministers, the following statements were made:
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: I had the pleasure to welcome here, today, to the Ministry of National Defence, my friend and counterpart Irakli Alasania, Minister of Defence of our friendly country, Georgia, who came to Athens to reciprocate my visit to Tbilisi some months ago.
It is well known that Greece and Georgia are two countries with strong historical, spiritual, cultural and religious ties.
The community of Greek descent who live, who reside in Georgia, as well as the approximately 150.000 Georgians who live in our country, they are also a bridge of friendship and cooperation between our peoples.
Greece supports firmly the Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic perspective and our aim is for the process of signing the Association Agreement between Georgia and the European Union to be completed within the semester of the Greek Presidency, before the end of this month.
Our country gives great significance to the respect and the continuation of the procedures of Geneva agreement about Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as to the continuation of the European Union’s mission in Georgia which is the only international delegation there at this moment, and our country participates in it, and it definitely must perform and accomplish its work.
We also discussed about the relations of Georgia with NATO. The day after tomorrow, NATO-Georgia Commission will meet in the context of the Defence Ministers Summit in Brussels, where I will also be this afternoon to attend it.
Today, during the talks which were conducted before, we considered all possible manners to further reinforce and deepen our bilateral cooperations.
Shortly before, high-rank officials of the National Defence General Staffs of Georgia and Greece signed a Military Cooperation Programme between our two countries.
And our both countries are determined to contribute and promote peace, stability, cooperation and friendship between all countries of our region without any exclusion.
As usually, we also spoke about the international and regional situations.
About the crisis in Ukraine, the crisis in the relations between the West and Russia.
The Georgian government has made a strategic choice of particularly great significance.
The choice of an organized normalization of its relations with Russia, without overlooking its Euro-Atlantic aspirations.
Dear friend Irakli, Minister,
Your today’s visit to Athens marks a new beginning, a new start in the field of our bilateral relations and not only in the Defence sector; by confirming our mutual will and determination to cooperate even further and closer to deepen and enhance our bilateral relations in all fields. Of course, today, as it was reasonable, special attention was paid to the field of Defence.
My friend, Minister,
Thank you very much for your visit. I hope we will soon see you again in our country and in this spirit of friendship, solidarity and excellent cooperation, apart from welcoming you, I now ask you to have the floor.
I. ALASANIA: Dear Minister, dear friend, it is an absolute pleasure for the Georgian delegation to be in the Hellenic republic.
I want to start with thanking you and your country for being such great friends with Georgia in regaining our independence twenty years ago. Greece stood by Georgia and of course we very much appreciate that you took care of thousands of Georgians who came here in 1990s searching for a better life. This is something that Georgian people and Georgian politicians much appreciate.
Second of all, I am very grateful for our friendship. The Ministries of Defence of Greece and Georgia now are entering a new era of cooperation which will definitely enhance our mutual interests in defence capabilities and defence education.
I just want to mention that your country should be very proud of having such a wise Defence Minister from whom I can also learn a lot. This relationship is very much important for both, Georgia and Greece.
We touched upon the NATO integration and I am very much grateful for the position that the Hellenic Republic has on Georgia’s full integration into the Εuro-Αtlantic community and, particularly this time, on granting the membership action plan for Georgia in the summit that will take place in the UK.
We are also fast-tracking our relationship with the EU. Through the leadership of the Hellenic Republic in the EU and under your supervision in the presidency of the EU, the association agreement with Georgia will be signed soon at the end of this month, and this is going to be also a new beginning of the full and comprehensive cooperation between Georgia and the EU with, hopefully, the perspective of Georgia to be part of the European family and particularly of the European Union.
We also touched upon the issues of regional security; I was very grateful for hearing your wise and prudent assessment on regional security and the way Greece and Georgia can play a good and peaceful role in stabilizing the region. Georgia stands ready, of course, to be a partner in that with you and to make sure that the Caucasus, a very turbulent region for the past years, as well as the Balkans, a very turbulent region for years, should be more de-escalated and more peaceful. Thus, Georgia and Greece will do our best to be partners in peace.
And thank you very much for extending this invitation. Αnd thank you for your wonderful hospitality that you showed us. Τhank you.