Thursday, June 23, the Georgian Prime Minister Mr. Zurab Nogaideli received the Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mr. Frans Weisglas at the State Chancellery, who arrived to Georgia by invitation of the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia.
At the meeting they discussed the urgent issues of relations between the two countries and the process of Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia.
At the beginning of the discussion the Prime Minister informed the guest about the ongoing reforms in Georgia. Zurab Nogaideli reviewed the events taken to liberalize the country's economy. He focused on judicial and local authorities systems reforms. Mr. Weisglas highly appraised the reforms effected by the Government of the country and stated that Georgia had passed a more impressionable way during the last 2-3 years.
The parties also discussed the process of integration of Georgian into NATO. Zurab Nogaideli stated that the goal of the Government was to enter into the list of those countries which would become members of the organization as the result of the nearest wave of NATO expansion. The guest highlighted that the Parliament of the Netherlands had taken certain measures to ensure the Government of the country to make a decision regarding the fact of becoming Georgia the NATO member.
They discussed the issues related to Georgia - EU relations. Mr. Weisglas approved the Policy of the Georgian Government which is currently concentrated upon on not becoming an EU member but on developing an Action Plan based upon the actual needs of European Neighborhood Initiative. The Prime Minister expressed his content in view of the progress of negotiations in this direction, although he noted that the question on execution of free trade regime by and between Georgia and the EU (and, first, Georgia and Turkey) would be settled.
Georgian State Chancellery Press Center