The Vice Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, David Zalkaliani met with the U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Georgia, Kelly Degnan, on 29 December, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The sides exchanged views over the security environment in the region, the latest developments around Ukraine and Russia’s aggressive rhetoric and actions to hinder Georgia’s and Ukraine’s NATO integration process. Underlining the inadmissibility of any third party making statements to revise the Bucharest Summit decisions, as well as of any attempt to impact this process, the sides referred to Russia’s occupation and annexation of the neighbouring countries’ territories and the failure to comply with its international obligations as the major challenge currently threatening the European security architecture.
The Foreign Minister reaffirmed that European and Euro-Atlantic integration is the Georgian People’s firm choice and that Georgia will continue to use all available formats to the maximum extent possible to accelerate the process. Zalkaliani thanked the U.S. Government for its support of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic course and for its practical and political assistance in this regard.
The sides further agreed that, given the Russian Federation’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric, it is important that Georgia and the U.S. remain in very close coordination and take concerted steps.
