Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 08, 2004
Georgia presents partnership action plan to NATO
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili presented his country's individual partnership action plan to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels Wednesday.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili presented his country's individual partnership action plan to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels Wednesday.
The plan, which establishes specific defense reform goals that NATO will assist Georgia in implementing, was presented during hisone-day visit to the military alliance.
The Georgian president addressed the North Atlantic Council, NATO's decision-making body, and met for talks with NATO SecretaryGeneral Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
They discussed the current situation in Georgia as well as regional issues of mutual concern.
One of the issues discussed was the withdrawal of Russian military personnel from Georgia in line with the 1999 Istanbul agreement on the adaptation of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty.
Speaking to reporters after their talks, the NATO chief said that NATO backs the full implementation of the agreement and hopedthat negotiations between Georgia and Russia on the withdrawal would start as soon as possible.
This is the first visit by President Saakashvili to NATO headquarters.