JUSTICE MINISTERS BUILD RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GEORGIA AND ARMENIA
By Diana Dundua

The Messenger, Georgia
Dec 13 2006

The Armenian Minister of Justice David Arutinian arrived in Tbilisi on
a two-day official visit on December 11. Georgian Minister of Justice
Gia Kavtaradze met his Armenian colleague at the Georgian-Armenian
border.

On December 12, the Justice Minister signed a Memorandum of
Understanding in order to foster bilateral cooperation.

"For me it is a great pleasure that Armenian Justice Minister David
Arutinian and his delegation are visiting Georgia. I want to say
that we are historical neighbours and the relationship between our
countries has always been fairly friendly. Cooperation between the
two ministries is also vitally important for Armenia and Georgia. I am
sure that from now on, our joint efforts will reach positive results
more easily and our future cooperation will be much more productive
and successful," Kavtaradze stated at the briefing on Monday.

The Memorandum of Understanding discusses cooperation in the areas of
law enforcement, experience-sharing in the prison system, exchanging
ideas and experiences to raise the level of personnel skills,
information sharing and legal assistance as well.

The sides also agreed to exchange information about their
organizational structure, experts’ opinions, legal acts, publications
as well as others.

"It is true that presently the Ministry of Justice is starting to play
a significant role in establishing better relationships between our
countries. I will say that Armenia and Georgia resemble each other in
many ways, in mentality and in structure. Both of us are ambitious,
we want to achieve our goals in a short period of time.

And thus each of us does his best to find new, interesting solutions
that will advance our country forward. I am sure that our mutual
cooperation will give us additional support," Arutinian told The
Messenger on December 11.

Besides the Ministry of Justice, the Armenian delegation visited the
National Bureau of Forensic Expertise. They met with the Minister of
Foreign Affairs Gela Bezhuashvili and Chairman of the Supreme Court
Kote Kublashvili as well.