Georgia’s Beruchashvili meets with U.S. officials

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Georgia’s Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili has held number of meetings during her first working visit to the United States.

She met the with Jon Huntsman, Chairman of the Atlantic Council Board of Directors, to talk over a broad spectrum of relations, including the Georgia-EU strategic partnership, existing threats in the region, as well as Georgia's solutions to overcome these threats and international community's role in this process.

Beruchashvili appreciated the experience of the US-led non-governmental organizations and think tanks in a development process of Georgia.

Beruchashvili's meeting with Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy has primarily focused on the challenges Georgia currently faces both in its foreign and domestic policy. Various issues of bilateral cooperation, plans for intensification of dialogue and development of a concrete agenda were also on table during the meeting.

The minister also delivered a speech on the progress Georgia has recently achieved in terms of integration into the European Union and NATO, and joined roundtable discussions held at the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

She highlighted the existing challenges in the region amid the current developments in Ukraine.

Beruchashvili's official working visit to U.S. is expected to end on February 4.

The U.S. and Georgia established diplomatic relations in 1992 following Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, Georgia has made impressive progress fighting corruption, developing modern state institutions, and enhancing global security.

The U.S. helps Georgia to deepen Euro-Atlantic ties and strengthen its democratic institutions. It supports Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders and does not recognize the separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions. As a participant of the Geneva International Discussions on the conflict in Georgia, the U.S. keeps its active involvement in support of these principles.