From November 24 till November 26, 2008 LATO in cooperation with the Georgian NGO “new Generation - new Initiative” as well as with the support of Ministry of Defence of Latvia and Ministry of Defence of Georgia organized an Akhaltsikhe International Security Seminar 2008 (AISS) in Tbilisi, Georgia for twenty four youngsters from Latvia and Georgia, which has been postponed from August to November due to the warfare. The main topic of the seminar was Russian-Georgian conflict and its impact on the Europeans and Black Sea region security with the following topic discussed – Russia-Georgia War: Lessons Learned and Future for the EU and NATO, Energy Aspect in the New Security Environment, Black Sea Regional Security and others.
During the seminar youngsters listened to the lectures of prominent speakers, participated in group discussions with the leadership of international experts, as well as went for study trip to Gori city and villages damaged during the August war. Several prominent officials and experts participated in the seminar, including Deputy State Secretary for Defence and Planning of Latvia Janis Garisons, Minister for Reintegration of Georgia Temuri Yakobashvili, Deputy Director of Latvian Institute of International Affairs Andris Spruds, „Jamestown foundation” policy analyst Vladimir Socor, Harvard University Black Sea Security program director Sergei Konoplyov, deputy head of European Union Monitoring Mission Darius Jurgelevicius and others.
In order to promote Georgia’s integration into NATO, LATO with the support of Ministry of Defence of Latvia has been implementing its initiatives together with Georgia NGO “new Generation-new Initiative” since 2007. Thus, from September 2007 till April 2008 LATO organized a project “Publishing of the book for Georgian secondary schools “NATO and Security of Georgia”. On December 2007 LATO and Ministry of Defence of Latvia took a patronage over “NATO corner” at the Akhaltsikhe State University located in the town of Akhaltsikhe. LATO is determined to continue to develop Latvia’s and Georgia’s cooperation in the sphere of society’s information and education about NATO and issues of security and defence, actively cooperation with local NGO sector.
Publications in the press:
Ana Alania. International Security Prospectsin the Light of Georgian-Russian War. Defence Today, # 436, 28.11.-04.12.2008.
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