U.S. Government team led by Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow to visit Georgia (October 19-20)
Alexander
Vershbow, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security
Affairs, will lead an interagency U.S. Government team on a visit to Georgia on
October 19-20 to meet with Georgian Government counterparts and to launch the
first round of working group meetings under the U.S.-Georgia Charter on
Strategic Partnership. Four
U.S.-Georgian bilateral working groups will focus on the priority areas
identified in the Charter: democracy, security, economic development and
people-to-people relations. During the
Security Working Group, the sides will discuss Georgian defense reform,
contributions to NATO operations in Afghanistan and regional security issues. Other working group meetings are planned for
November and December. The U.S.-Georgia
Strategic Partnership Charter was signed in Washington in January 2009. The Commission on the U.S.-Georgia Charter
established the specific working groups tasked with implementation of Charter
provisions in June 2009, when the first meeting under the Charter was held in
Washington.