Allies expressed very strongly their support to Georgia, Ukraine, their territorial integrity and sovereignty. Such a statement made today NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after the Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence.

“We had a good meeting with both the defense minister from Georgia and Ukraine. In that meeting, Allies expressed very strongly their support to both countries, their territorial integrity and sovereignty. And Allies provide support to Georgia and Ukraine in different ways. We do it in the NATO framework, we provide bilateral support, training, capacity building and there will be an exercise in Georgia later on this year. And of course, NATO will be part of that because it"s an exercise we do together and demonstrates in a way how we are working closely together.

The Black Sea region is of strategic importance for NATO. So what happens there matters for us. We are three littoral States, NATO allies that are Black Sea littoral states, and we have two very close partners Georgia and Ukraine. So to work closely with them is important for us, important for the partners, and that was also clearly confirmed today.

Our position has not changed. The decisions made at the Bucharest summit still stand, but the focus now is on reform, to help both Ukraine and Georgia to modernize their defense and security institutions and we continue to focus on that”, - said Jens Stoltenberg.