The President of Georgia met David Petraeus United States Army General current Commander of ISAF and Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan. During his discussion with the journalists David Petraeus noted that the meeting was productive and gave a high evaluation to Georgian forces deployed in Afghanistan. As he said Georgian soldiers perform very difficult tasks and that this process is irreversible.
"We had very productive meeting. I have informed the President about the highest-level service that Georgian soldiers perform in Afghanistan. I have unique experience to speak about great job Georgian militaries perform, because I had an honor to lead Georgian force during my deployment in Afghanistan. They performed their duties definitely in a remarkable way in this exceptionally challenging region. They did the same in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. We have achieved very important progress in this province, but I told the Congress that we have to do a lot ahead. It is very good to know that Georgian contingent still remains with us. I remember when a decision was made on sending first Georgian unit to Iraq I was meeting their leadership by that time. I was expecting from them to raise certain problems, on what type of jobs should Georgian soldiers get. For example to give them less dangerous zones or something like this. Instead of this Georgian officer approached me and said: "General, I want to be sure that our forces will fulfill important mission in challenging places". I was impressed. It was a very, very difficult period in Iraq and Georgians played a vital role. They helped us defeating the violence. Their great merit is also that we managed to hand out security mission and functions to Iraq forces, in giving Iraq people a hope that the majority of them had almost lost" David Petraeus noted.
The President of Georgia once again expressed his deepest sorrow on the death of Corporal ValeriVerskian and stated that Afghan Mission is a matter of Georgia's dignity and future.
"General told me that Georgian soldiers are one of the best among them who ever served there. He leads a coalition that consists of 47 countries. We had lost a soldier several days ago, Corporal ValeriVerskian and once again I would like to say that each loss of this type is a huge tragedy for me indeed and is a huge loss for the family. However we should understand that Georgian professional soldiers perform a very important mission for Georgia. It is an issue of Georgia's dignity, prestige and future", the President of Georgia stated.
MikheilSaakashvili and General David Petraeusspoke not only about the activities of Georgian units in Afghanistan, but about those global issues that influence both Georgia and US. They have discussed in general processes taking place in near East.
The Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Georgia in the United States TemurIakobashvili attended the meeting as well.