Georgia, Tbilisi, Oct. 25 / Trend N.Kirtzkhalia /
A meeting in the format of a New Group of "Friends of Georgia" (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Poland, Czech, Bulgaria and Romania) was held in Luxembourg today upon the Czech side's initiative. Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze take part in the meeting held among these countries foreign ministers, the Georgian Foreign Ministry reported.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis, Hungarys' Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby, Romanian Foreign Ministry's State Secretary Bogdan Aurescu, Latvia's Foreign Ministry's State Secretary Andris Teikmanis, Polish Foreign Ministrys' State Secretary Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, Danish Foreign Ministry's political director Marie-Louise Overvad, Finish Foreign Ministry's General Director for Political Affairs Tiimu Taner and U .S. National Security Council Caucasus and the Aegean Sea Director Daniel N. Garba.
Luxembourg also hosted the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, which also discussed issues related to Georgia. The above discussions preceded the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting scheduled on the same day, which was of particular importance, bearing in mind that issues related to Georgia were planned to be discussed at the Council meeting.
The meeting in the format of a New Group discussed the topical issues of the EU-Georgia relations such as the course of negotiations for an association, opening of formal negotiations on free trade, importance of timely entry into force of the agreements on visa facilitation and readmission, process of revising the European Neighborhood Policy, Partnership to the East, EU's role in strengthening stability and security in Georgia and others. The parties also noted the importance of the Lisbon summit in the context of the NATO-Georgia relations.
The sides agreed to continue cooperation on topical issues for Georgia in the format of New Group of "Friends of Georgia".