The two day forum comprising experts from the Defence - and Foreign Ministries of the Baltic States, Georgia and Great Britain came to an end today. The forum focused on the restructuring process of the participating countries’ defence forces.
The main goal of the meeting was to share experience and give advice to the Georgian experts in the restructuring area of the defence forces, doing that via concrete, most understandable and tangible for Georgia, topics. E.g. Lithuanian experts gave an overview of the ongoing restructuring process in their defence forces, Latvia introduced the BALTSEA project, project that embraces foreign countries supporting Baltic projects; Estonian representatives explained to their colleagues issues connected with their Membership Action Plan. The seminar-format meeting was chaired by the British retired general Garry Johnson.
Today’s Baltic States-Georgian forum concentrated in more detail on the restructuring of the defence forces of the four participating countries. The discussions’ main accent was laid on the changes and developments in the Georgian defence forces. Georgia also gave a brief overview of the current situation in the Caucasus region.
Delegation members discussed the concrete essence of the aid-programmes directed to Georgia and how the programmes would be split between the three Baltic countries i.e.
the status of the leading countries. The most relevant programmes under the Baltic auspices are national defence planning, civil-military relations, civil control, crisis regulation and training.
Tomorrow the Georgian delegation will meet with ambassador Jüri Luik, leader of the Estonian delegation conducting NATO accession talks, and Secretary General of the Estonian Ministry of Defence Indrek Kannik. The leader of the Georgian delegation is colonel George Giorgobiani, first deputy of the Georgian General Staff.