On December 21, Minister of Defense of Georgia Zhuansher Burchuladze took part in the tripartite ministerial meeting of Georgia-Turkey-Azerbaijan, held in Kayseri, Turkey. He met his Turkish and Azerbaijani colleagues Hulusi Akar and Zakir Hasanov face-to-face.

Trilateral cooperation in the defense field between Georgia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan started in 2012. The participating countries host the ministerial on a rotating basis. The tripartite ministerial was held in the Republic of Turkey this year.

According to the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, during the meeting in a tripartite format, the defense ministers of Georgia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan discussed the security environment and modern challenges of the wider Black Sea region, as well as the current events in Ukraine. They also focused on strengthening energy security and diversifying how to supply energy carriers.

The Georgian, Turkish and Azerbaijani colleagues also talked about the existing cooperation in the defense field and future plans, during which Juansher Burchuladze noted that joint exercises, trainings, and expert-level meetings bring the militaries of the three countries even closer and strengthen mutual compatibility. At the end of the meeting, the defense ministers signed a tripartite ministerial communiqué.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, the defense ministers of Georgia and Turkey focused on the successful strategic cooperation in the field of defense between the two countries at the meeting.

Zhuansher Burchuladze paid particular attention to Turkey's material-technical and financial assistance, involvement, and support of Turkish experts in developing Georgian Defense Forces. He thanked his Turkish colleague for the support provided.

The parties reviewed issues of cooperation in bilateral and trilateral formats. They also discussed cooperation with NATO, the deepening of ties in the direction of military education, and international studies.