The United States is “very committed to our very strong relationship with Georgia”, Hillary Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, said in brief remarks before meeting with Grigol Vashadze, the Georgian foreign minister, in Washington on February 17.

“I’m delighted to welcome a colleague and friend back to the State Department, and we are very committed to our very strong relationship with Georgia, and we have many issues to discuss, so many common concerns and common values,” she said.

The Georgian Foreign Minister said before the meeting that Georgia was “privileged and honored to be strategic partners with the United States.”

After the meeting Grigol Vashadze said that among the issues discussed was the U.S.-Georgia strategic partnership charter and “concrete results we should reach this year” in frames of this charter.

He said that he had discussed cooperation on Afghanistan and Georgia’s “accelerated drive towards NATO – I can’t go into details, but it was one of the key issues”.

“Issues related with security and stability in the Caucasus and especially Russia’s actions in the occupied territories were also discussed, as well as bilateral issues, including timetable of high-level visits,” Vashadze said.

Vashadze also said that he had informed the Secretary of State about the details of Russia’s military build-up in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.