Ambassador of Georgia David Bakradze gave a keynote speech at the “The United States Strategic Command 2017 Deterrence Symposium”. The eighth annual symposium in Omaha, NE offered a theme, “Impact of Deterrence and Assurance Concepts and Capabilities”. Ambassador opened his remarks by introducing Georgia’s challenges related to territorial integrity issues. David Bakradze highlighted the Georgian government’s commitment and progress towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration and highlighted the contribution of Georgia in a fight against common threats of the NATO alliance. Ambassador stressed the importance of the US-Georgia security cooperation in implementing Georgia Defense Readiness Program (GDRP), as well as active engagement with EU and NATO for deterrence and strategic communication purposes. In his remarks, Ambassador thanked Georgian and American soldiers for their bravery in the fight against common menaces and expressed hopes for a more prosperous and peaceful future through US-Georgia security partnership.
The symposium was opened by Gen. John E. Hyten, commander of USSTRATCOM. The conference also included speeches from U.S. Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command and Republic of Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command; U.S. Air Force Gen. (ret.) Larry Welch, Senior Fellow, Institute for Defense Analyses; and Isabelle Desmartis, Canadian Department of National Defense director of general policy planning.