President Giorgi Margvelashvili has convened a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) for August 1 to discuss Georgia’s preparations for the NATO summit in Wales in September, which the President will be attending.

It will be the first NSC session since President Margvelashvili took office in November.

The role of the NSC, which is chaired by the President whose authorities have been significantly downsized by the constitution that went into force last November, was sidelined by the security and crisis management council, which was established late last year and which is chaired by the Prime Minister.

At a meeting in June, NATO foreign ministers decided that there will be no membership action plan for Georgia on the agenda of the upcoming NATO summit and instead agreed to offer Georgia a “substantive" package to help the country move further closer to the Alliance.