President Saakashvili said the fact that President Obama’s scheduled of few bilateral meetings on sidelines of NATO Lisbon summit also included talks with his Georgian counterpart was in itself “an important message”.

“I am very satisfied with this meeting,” Saakashvili told a group of Georgian journalists in Lisbon after meeting with President Obama late on November 19 evening. “As you know this was President Obama’s only meeting here at NATO summit, apart his meetings with [Afghan] President Karzai and with the hosts [referring to Portuguese leaders] – and you know that Afghanistan tops the agenda of this summit; actually he had no other meetings here except of these ones. Of course this is already in itself an important message.”

“During the meeting the President [Obama] made an extremely supportive statements about reforms in Georgia; he assessed highly democratic and economic reforms carried out in Georgia; he demonstrated good knowledge of details of the situation [in Georgia]; not only he reiterated support to Georgia’s territorial integrity, but [also demonstrated] that they [the U.S. authorities] are working on this issue and of course [Obama expressed] support towards the path, which will lead us to the NATO membership,” Saakashvili said.