After the meeting of the Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Alasania and Defence Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany Ursula von der Leyen, statements were made for the representatives of media, reports GHN based on the Ministry of Defense.
Minister of Defence of Georgia Irakli Alasania: "It is an honor for me to be here in Germany and to be the first Minister officially visiting the Defence Ministry of Germany. I am very grateful for the opportunity and extending invitation. Georgia and Germany have been wonderful friends and for twenty years now after regaining our independence, we of course value very much the assistance that was provided on our way to strengthen the institutions of Georgia for this past decades and Germany was on the leading role in that.
The discussion was important, very intensive and interesting. We covered the issues of mutual interest such as our experience in the operation of ISAF which brought our soldiers more closely together, raised the credibility and trust between armed forces of Georgia and Germany, and of course, we discussed our future endeavor together with the German Armed Forces in Mazar-i-Sharif in the Resolute Support Mission.
I was fortunate enough for this trip to visit the Georgian troops that are training together with the German troops in pre-deployment to the future Resolute Support Operation and what is most important that the German General who is overseeing the training told me that their interoperability and readiness is highest.
Today we also discussed other bilateral issues such as the cooperation of German and Georgian Defence Ministries on military education which is very important for us and we also discussed the possibilities of having the Georgian liaison officers working together with Germans to increase the interoperability of our Armed Forces.
Education and military experience that we are going to share will be the solid foundation for our success for the future operations like the Resolute Support. We jointly are proud that we completed the ISAF Operation successfully and we have to continue supporting the Afghans to make sure that they are proving for their society the security they need.
One more very important issue that we discussed today was Georgia's integration to NATO and the Substantial Package that was offered to Georgia at Wales Summit. I am grateful that this is the idea of the German side and we're going to start implementing with the other NATO nations the package that will make Georgia more interoperable with NATO and will pave the way of Georgia to NATO.
Finally I extended invitation to my colleague to visit Georgia because Georgian-German relationship is so multifaceted and too important that we need to demonstrate high-level visits to each other to ensure Georgian society that they are on the right path to the European family."
Defence Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany Ursula von der Leyen: "I am very glad to host my Georgian colleague. We have discussed many important issues today. We have been cooperating for many years and we had very interesting and fruitful meeting. We have a very good experience of working together. Members of our Armed Forces were serving shoulder to shoulder in Kosovo and then in Afghanistan. Today we would like to deepen our cooperation. After accomplishment of the ISAF mission, Georgian contingent will take part in the Resolute Support mission. I am delighted that they are going to serve in this mission along with the German soldiers in Mazar-i-Sharif. I would like to underline that Georgia is the largest contributor to the mission in Afghanistan among the non-NATO countries. Georgian military servicemen are reliable partners and that's why we plan closer cooperation in the Resolute Support mission. We also discussed the issue of military education and education of officers. I think we have a very good potential of constructive cooperation in this direction as well."