Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili met with Kelly Degnan, US Ambassador to Georgia.
The conversation focused on key directions of Georgia-US strategic partnership across a variety of areas, notably security cooperation, also on global challenges posed by COVID-19, and the process of vaccination.
The Prime Minister welcomed the fact that USCGC Hamilton(WMSL 753) is pulling into Batumi, emphasizing that this visit demonstrates the importance of the Black Sea for Euro-Atlantic security and bolsters both security cooperation and regional peace and stability.
The parties singled out the importance of rapid vaccination and joint efforts for effectively combatting the pandemic.
“This was an important opportunity to discuss with Prime Minister Garibashvili many of the issues on our agenda. There are a lot of priority issues that we are already working on with the Government, one of them being, of course, COVID response and the vaccine rollout. We are hoping that Georgians will go out there and get vaccinated. We have had very good success in the United States. Over 55% of the adult population in the United States has now been vaccinated. I have been vaccinated; my teens have been vaccinated. We se that this is the way to reopen our economies, reopen our schools, and get life back to some kind of normal. It was very good to talk with the Prime Minister about that. We also discussed our security agenda and many different issues we are working on. We have coast guard cutter Hamilton visiting Batumi. I am headed there tomorrow to do a ship visit. Again, we are always delighted when US Navy vessels can come and visit Georgia. They love coming to Georgia. And I am looking forward to welcoming CGC Hamilton tomorrow. They have been doing some good training with the Georgian Coast Guard; very impressed with what the Georgian Coast Guard is able to do; its level of capability, its professionalism. And we are delighted to continue to cooperate with Georgia all across the security sector,” Kelly Degnan said after her meeting with the Prime Minister.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chief of Mission Rian Harris.
