On October 30, the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Commission's Economic, Energy, and Trade Working Group convened in Tbilisi, Georgia, led by Georgia's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Davit Zalkaliani and Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Mikheil Janelidze, and Principal Deputy Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Kurt Tong and USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia Jonathan Katz representing the United States. The working group reaffirmed the strong bilateral relationship between the United States and Georgia, and the United States congratulated Georgia for unanimously ratifying its Association Agreement with the European Union to include a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, demonstrating Georgia's significant progress towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration. The US side welcomed the provisional application of the DCFTA since September 2014 and expressed readiness to assist Georgia in the implementation process.
The Economic Working Group discussed the "Georgia 2020" economic strategy, which the United States encouraged Georgia to implement with continued private sector consultation. The working group also discussed Georgia's growing economic role in the region and bilateral cooperation in agriculture, intellectual property rights, public-private sector engagement, energy security and supply diversification, and infrastructure development.
The participants underscored support for Georgia's efforts to become a regional business, trade, and logistics hub, and the readiness to use its location as a strategic crossroad to contribute to the full revitalization of the Silk Road. The participants stressed the importance of continued improvements to transportation infrastructure and increased regional cooperation to remove regulatory bottlenecks through the trade corridor. The participants noted the successful International Investment Forum held this week, and the United States confirmed its support for and its intent to participate in the Tbilisi "High-Level Conference on Regional Trade and Transport: Seamless East-West Corridor."
Welcoming the evolving architecture of each country's trade relationships and recent expert level discussions, both sides agreed to continue their work through the High Level Trade and Investment Dialogue led by the U.S. Trade Representative and the Government of Georgia to discuss various options to strengthen trade and investment between our countries, including the possibility of a free trade agreement in the future. To further deepen the U.S.-Georgia economic partnership, the working group committed to take practical steps and exchange ideas on economic reforms and opportunities for cooperation in particular sectors.
The Strategic Partnership Commission is the primary mechanism for organizing and prioritizing the broad and deepening cooperation between the United States and Georgia. The Commission includes four bilateral working groups on priority areas identified in the Charter on Strategic Partnership: democracy; defense and security; economics, trade, and energy; and people-to-people and cultural exchanges.