Polish President Lech Kaczynski is in Georgia on a two-day visit. An official greeting ceremony was held today in the courtyard of the parliament building, after which Kaczynski held a face-to-face meeting with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili. The two presidents spoke mainly about issues concerning strategic cooperation between Georgia and Poland. 
After the meeting Georgian government representatives and Polish delegation members held further talks in an expanded format. After the meeting, the Georgian and Polish presidents held a joint briefing in parliament. Poland is a guiding light for Georgia among European countries, Saakashvili said at the briefing. 

He added that the two countries had developed "great historical, cultural and emotional relations" over the years. Saakashvili said he hoped that the two countries would further develop their economic relations while maintaining close political cooperation, which is manifested in Poland's strong support for Georgia's accession to NATO.

President Kaczynski, meanwhile, expressed his hope that Georgia would move from the Intensified Dialogue phase of talks on NATO accession to the Membership Action Plan. The Polish president said that Georgia might be granted the MAP at the next NATO summit in Lisbon in April 2008. This, he said, would be yet another important step towards joining the Euro-Atlantic alliance. "We support Georgia's membership of NATO, as well as of the European Union. Any talk of prospects for stability must make mention of the successes Georgia has achieved in terms of economic development."

The Polish president said that despite the strong Polish-Georgian friendship, trade turnover between the two countries and the sharing of information are developing at a rather slow pace. He invited his Georgian counterpart to visit Poland in May in order to discuss ways to resolve this issue. At the end of the briefing, Saakashvili thanked Kaczynski for his country's support for Georgia. 

Also today, Kaczynski laid a wreath at the monument to soldiers who perished fighting for Georgia's unity. Later, he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in a special ceremony at Tbilisi State University. At the end of the visit, Presidents Kaczynski and Saakashvili toured the Museum of the Soviet Occupation in Tbilisi.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia