U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Matthew Bryza, said on March 14, “we are grateful” for Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze’s “very generous statement” about Georgia’s readiness to host the U.S. military bases.

He, however, also said that the issue was not discussed between the two countries and added: “At this point when we look how to implement our Charter on Strategic Partnership we are talking about how to help Georgia rethink its strategic military doctrine and rebuild it military forces and fulfill criteria for accession to NATO.”

Speaking at a news conference in Tbilisi after having talks with government and opposition leaders, Bryza said that “after being invaded” in August, 2008 Georgia now needed to rethink and develop security doctrine focused on defending its soil, that could only be done by the Georgian soldiers.

The Georgian Foreign Minister told the Japanese press this week that although there had not been any discussions on hosting the U.S. bases, Georgia was ready to do that in case of request from Washington.