President Saakashvili met on March 12 with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs, Andrew C. Weber, in Tbilisi, the Georgian President’s administration said.

It said that the U.S. delegation also included other DoD officials and a representative from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, Andrew C. Weber, was in Georgia a year ago when he participated in an opening ceremony of the U.S.-funded biological research facility, Central Public Health Reference Laboratory (CPHRL), in Tbilisi outskirts last March.

“Deepening relations and cooperation between Georgia and the United States was the main topic of discussion,” the Georgian President’s administration said. “They also discussed the prospects of developing a Georgian American Central Public Healthcare Referral Laboratory for Georgia and for the region in general. It was also noted that, the laboratory has already been created and the first studies will begin in the near future. American military researchers will work at the lab within the scope of a Georgian-American partnership.”

Director of the CPHRL Anna Zhvania and Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Kapanadze also participated in the meeting.