The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili

Madame Secretary,

It is an immense pleasure to welcome you again to Georgia. You have always been an outstanding friend of our nation.

I want, in the name of the Georgian people, to express our deep gratitude to you, Hilary, for your personal leadership on all of our issues and your longstanding support for our young democracy.

Ladies and gentlemen,

If Georgia is today an independent State progressing at a quick path on its way towards the EU and NATO, it is of course, thanks to the Georgian people’s commitment and courage.

But the support of the United States of America, throughout all these 20 years and in particular the support of President Obama, and Secretary Clinton in the recent period, has been instrumental and fundamental for our survival and our success.

I want to commend the firm commitment of the US to our sovereignty and our territorial integrity, its constant aid in our reform process, its permanent denunciation of the illegal occupation of our territories and its repeated call for the right of the hundreds of thousands of Georgian IDPs to return to their home.

These American policies allowed the Georgian democratic experience to overcome huge challenges and achieve striking results.

The partnership between our two nations is based on shared values and principles, the same love of freedom, and also obvious common interests.

Secretary Clinton’s visit, the Strategic Partnership charter meetings and the discussions held today constitute another step forward in the constant enhancement of our cooperation.

These talks are following the meeting held with President Obama at the White House earlier this year.

They allowed us to progress on all the objectives that were set last January.

Our security cooperation is on the right track. Today’s ceremony with the Coast Guard was a symbol of our progress on that matter. The process of enhancing our self-defense capacities is now real and concrete. The US is committed to it and important steps were discussed today.

I welcome our close cooperation in order to ensure the irreversibility of the Georgian democratic reforms.

My government is committed to have free and fair parliamentary elections this October.

The attachment to democracy of the people of Georgia is unwavering– they expressed it during the Rose Revolution and ever since then – so I am sure that these elections will express the free will of the Georgian people.

And I welcome your quick response to our request for international observation missions.

Your support, Madame Secretary, for my government’s policies towards minorities and to our commitment to an open, democratic and multiethnic society is also essential.

Progress on our people-to-people relationship is good. More Georgians now travel to the US – including for studies – and we have thousands of American teachers teaching English to Georgian children here.

We are also grateful for your support for our policies of engagement of the Georgian citizens living in the occupied territories.

In January, President Obama mentioned the prospect of a Free Trade Agreement between the US and Georgia.

I welcome the concrete process of high level dialogue that has started since then, and that will allow us to progress towards these goals, which, as the American President has put it, are in the mutual interest of American and Georgian business.

Finally, I want to thank you, Madam Secretary, for your Administration leadership and your personal leadership on the decisive question of our integration in the Transatlantic Alliance.

The last NATO Summit in Chicago was a huge step forward for Georgia.

The language of the communiqué, the meeting of the 28 allies with the 4 aspirant countries which put Georgia in the same group with the 3 Western Balkan States, and the words you proclaimed during this meeting on enlargement perspectives, showed everyone that Georgia is closer than ever to fulfilling its Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

We need to keep up the momentum of reforms and to count on our allies’ commitment. We are confident on both, in a large part thanks to your unwavering friendship.

Thank you,

The United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

 Thank you very much, Mr. President, and it is a great pleasure to be back in Georgia, and particularly to be here on the Black Sea and to see all of the development taking place in Batumi. When I was last here in Tbilisi, you showed me posters of everything that was happening in Batumi and urged me to come see for myself, and I’m very pleased that I have this opportunity to do that.

The partnership between Georgia and the United States reflects the energy, the entrepreneurship, and the dynamism of our people and societies. More than that, our relationship delivers results. You can see that just from what we have achieved in the past few weeks.

This morning, we held the third annual plenary session of our Strategic Partnership Commission, covering topics from bolstering peace and security to promoting global economic growth and deepening democratic values. We confirmed plans for a new agreement to help our scientific communities collaborate more closely.

We also discussed the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s plan to move forward with its second compact with Georgia, a show of confidence in Georgia’s future. Reforming and modernizing Georgia’s defense establishment is also one of our shared priorities. Earlier today, I attended the commissioning of a coast guard vessel that the United States and Georgia refurbished together to help Georgia defend against threats from terrorism, drugs, and human trafficking.

We also discussed Georgia’s commitment to the ISAF operations in Afghanistan, including your pledge to help sustain the Afghan National Security Force after the 2014 transition. Georgian troops fight bravely alongside American forces in Afghanistan, and we greatly honor their courage and sacrifice. Georgia is already the largest per capita contributor of troops to our efforts in Afghanistan, and we thank you for sending a second battalion which will make you the largest non-NATO contributor.

We have also agreed this year on several new areas of defense cooperation. The United States will provide training and support for Georgian defense forces to better monitor your coasts and your skies. We will help upgrade Georgia’s utility helicopter fleet so it can more easily transport supplies and people throughout your country. We are also going to help Georgia give its officers the 21st century training they need for today’s changing missions. With these efforts, Georgia will be a stronger international partner with an improved capacity for self-defense.

Of course, Georgia’s long-term security and prosperity will depend in large part on the quality of your democracy. And this is a moment of great opportunity for your country. The United States will stand with the Georgian people as you take the next steps to strengthen the rights, freedom, and opportunities of all your citizens. Every Georgian deserves to live in a tolerant, democratic, inclusive society.

Today, I met with leaders of opposition parties and discussed their vital role in deepening Georgia’s democratic development. The United States believes competing energies and ideas drive the democratic process. Civic activism, open debate, a level playing field, citizens’ access to information are all vital as you move toward parliamentary elections and then presidential elections. We expect Georgia will hold free and fair elections this fall, and then complete a democratic transfer of power in 2013. And we believe that every party and every candidate should respect the political process, and we look forward to welcoming a strong relationship with those that the Georgian people choose.

Let me also say, as both President Obama and I have repeated many times before, the United States remains steadfast in our commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders. Today we also discussed ways Georgia can reach out to the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, including providing status-neutral travel documents and identification cards. Soon U.S. Embassies and consulates around the world will accept the status-neutral travel document for any resident from these regions who chooses to use them for travel or study in the United States. This would be a strong step toward reconciliation that supports a peaceful and just resolution of the conflict.

Finally, when President Saakashvili met with President Obama in the Oval Office earlier this year, one of the key issues they discussed was how to increase trade and investment between our countries. And just last week we launched our new High-Level Trade and Investment Dialogue. This group will explore a range of mechanisms to continue strengthening trade relations between our countries, including the possibility of a free trade agreement between Georgia and the United States, an updated investment agreement, and other measures that could facilitate trade and investments.

This is a relationship that gets things done and has for 20 years, because after all, Mr. President, we commemorate the 20th year of our diplomatic relations. We’ve seen a lot of change in that time. Georgia has moved from a closed country under communist rule to an active member of the Open Government Partnership. We are meeting in a building, the Public Service Hall, that is a testament to the positive changes that Georgia has made. And I would like to say as someone who has the honor of traveling the world, so many countries, particularly new and struggling democracies are looking to Georgia. They want to know how Georgia has accomplished so much in such a short period of time. I look forward to seeing where the next 20 years take you.

Now before I conclude, I’d like to take a moment to send congratulations to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on behalf of the American people. For 60 years, the American people have admired her strength, her resilience, and her commitment to freedom and human dignity for all people. We join her subjects and people around the world in celebrating Her Majesty’s historic Diamond Jubilee.

So thank you once again, Mr. President, for your friendship and to the people of Georgia for the strong partnerships between our people and our governments. This is an exciting time in the history of Georgia, and we want to see you go from strength to strength and continue to improve the lives of the Georgia people as well as serve as a model for people everywhere.

Thank you.