FM: Georgia-U.S. Treaty Expected in December
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 22 Dec.'08 / 10:35

Grigol Vashadze, the Georgian foreign minister, said on December 21, that charter on U.S-Georgian strategic partnership was expected to be signed “before New Year.”

“The text has been submitted to the Georgian side; now the Georgian side will propose some amendments on Monday and by Tuesday the text, I think, will be finally agreed and it will probably be signed before the New Year,” Vashadze told journalists.

He said that the framework agreement would cover broad range of issue, including security, humanitarian, culture and democratization.

Nino Burjanadze, the former parliamentary speaker and a leader of opposition Democratic Movement-United Georgia party, said that the authorities and the Georgian media was wrongly making major focus on the security aspects of the potential treaty. Burjanadze, who is currently in the United States, said as far as she understood a significant part of the treaty would deal with democratization issues.

The agreement is most likely to be similar to the one, which Ukraine and the United States signed on December 19 - Charter on Strategic Partnership. The Charter, which consists of five sections covers cooperation in defense and security; economy, trade and energy; strengthening democracy and people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

The U.S.-Ukraine Charter reads that it is based on core principles shared by both sides and “support to each other’s sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders constitutes the foundation of our bilateral relations.”

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