“The message for Georgia is that we should step up provide more support and send a message that we support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia not only in words but also in deeds,” said NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference following the extraordinary meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels, Belgium.
According to Stoltenberg, he called on NATO Allies to show more support for Georgia.
"I think we need to realise that we are faced with a totally new security reality, which of course affects the people of Ukraine. It's devastating for them, but it's also putting more pressure on those countries in our neighbourhood who are not members of NATO, not members of EU, countries at risk, and Georgia is one of them.
The Georgian Defence Minister attended the meeting and all of us listened very carefully to his intervention, where he stated the challenges Georgia faces being a country which has already seen the consequences of aggressive actions by Russia back in 2008 and other attempts by Russia to interfere in Georgia in domestic affairs.
One of the lessons we have to learn from what is going on in Ukraine today is that we need to support these countries which are at risk now. It's better to support and help them now than after a military intervention. So if anything, I think we now see the value of the support that has been provided to Ukraine before the invasion, but also the importance of that we could have done even more for Ukraine.
I think that the message for Georgia is that we should step up, provide more support and send the message that we support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia. Not only words, but also in deeds, and therefore I call on NATO allies and others to provide support to Georgia and that was the message also from allied leaders at the meeting today," Stoltenberg said.
