The Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Vakhtang Gomelauri, held the first official meeting with the newly appointed US Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan. The Minister and the US Ambassador have discussed opportunities for further deepening the successful cooperation between the two countries. Vakhtang Gomelauri outlined the importance of fruitful collaboration in the fields of fight against crime, crime prevention and border security.
Furthermore, the parties of the meeting have also discussed the ongoing projects that are being implemented with the support and involvement of the United States. Vakhtang Gomelauri expressed gratitude for the help and support provided in various fields over the years by the United States Government.
The Minister of Internal Affairs and the US Ambassador to Georgia discussed plans for capacity building of the Ministry as well as future cooperation of law enforcement agencies of the two countries.
“We’ve held meeting with the Ambassador of the United States to Georgia, Kelly Degnan, who has been deployed in Georgia several days ago. I congratulated her with the new appointment, wished success and discussed a number of issues. One of the major topics to discuss was of course structure units of the Ministry and reforms implemented in this direction as well as planned reforms. During the meeting we also tackled the cooperation issues that we have with a number of US agencies to further intensify the existing relations. We’ve touched upon one of the most soaring issues of Georgia, which is territorial integrity of the country and occupied territories, the current situation on the ground as well as the conditions faced by our citizens residing along the line of occupation. United States is our strategic partner and one of the major supporter of Georgia”-stated the Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri after the meeting with the Ambassador.
“We had an excellent meeting, where we had a chance to discuss the security cooperation in many different areas between Georgia and the United States, that has been going on for years and particularly important work we’ve been doing on border defense. Over the past several years, the United States has committed over 600 million dollars to helping train, equip and build a capacity of Georgia and I think Georgia is very focused on being able to defend its territorial borders as well as its maritime borders and of course the United States remains committed to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to helping Georgia to build its strength and its ability to defend its own borders”-stated the US Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan.
