OREANDA-NEWS  Deputy Defence Minister Tamás Vargha received Georgian Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Victor Dolidze in his office on Wednesday, 26 July 2017 in Budapest.

Georgia’s Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Victor Dolidze, who is on an official visit to Hungary at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, held a meeting with Deputy Defence Minister Tamás Vargha at the Ministry of Defence in Budapest within the framework of a short informal visit.

Topics of the meeting included Georgia’s efforts to achieve Euro-Atlantic integration, which have been consistently supported by Hungary from the very beginning, and the Visegrád Group’s Eastern Partnership Programme, in view of the fact that Georgia is also included in the Regional Visegrád chapter of the Hungarian V4 presidency’s programme as a priority target country.

The Hungarian presidency has set 11 September 2017 as the date for the meeting of V4 + Eastern Partnership foreign ministers, but a separate foreign ministers’ meeting may also be held with Georgia on the sidelines of the EU-Eastern partnership summit in Brussels in November.

Mr. Vargha also highlighted the fact that Hungary supports Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. “We support the international negotiation process in Geneva, as well as the activities of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia”, the Deputy Defence Minister declared at the meeting.

Since last year’s elections in October, the country has been committed to European and Euro-Atlantic integration, i.e. to acquiring NATO membership at the earliest opportunity and to the long-term possibility of joining the European Union.

Hungary is contributing to the implementation of the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package by providing a logistics expert, together with the United States and Belgium.