Ilia Darchiashvili receives an invitation to NATO Washington summit

Ilia Darchiashvili, the foreign minister of the Republic of Georgia, has received an invitation to the NATO(North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) summit, which is scheduled to be held from July 9 to 11 in Washington.

The information in this regard referred to the statement of USA’s State Department spokesman Mathew Miller. However, there has been   late  official response to the State Department’s invitation to Georgia.  It is worth mentioning that earlier in the week  an invitation to Georgia was already expected after Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien’s statement to the foreign media  which mentioned Georgia.

Alexander Vinnikov  the head of the NATO liaison office in Georgia states that although the invitation has been sent, no specific meeting focused on Georgia was planned during the summit.   He also added that the US Secretary of State has invited his colleagues from partner countries across the world including Georgia  to participate in working sessions of NATO in the USA’s capital. At the same time  Vinnikov underlined the significance of Georgia’s participation in the summit and stressed that Georgia “has remained a valuable partner for many years.”

The Georgian foreign ministry  reacting to the invitation  later confirmed Georgia’s participation in the event under the leadership of the foreign minister in the Summit. As per the sources of the Georgian foreign ministry, “Ilia Darchiashvili  will take part in the meeting of foreign ministers   scheduled for July 10.”

Moreover  as per the ministry Ilia Darchiashvili “will also take part in other events on the sidelines of the NATO summit, and he will also hold the bilateral meeting. It is also worth noting that Georgia was represented at the Foreign Minister level at the Vilnius Summit. However  the country was represented by the Head of State in previous NATO Summits.

The USA has criticized the move of the ruling party  Georgian Dream  to implement the foreign agent’s law in the country. The USA strongly urged Georgia to withdraw the law to meet European parameters.