The council is led by the prime minister and includes other high ranking government, intelligence and military officials.

The respective law defined the council as an advisory body of the President of Georgia for decision-making on strategic questions of the organisation of military construction and defence, international and foreign policy related to the security of the country, maintenance of stability, law and order.

The chairperson of Parliament and those of the supreme representative bodies of the Abkhazia and Adjara autonomous republics, though not members, were to participate in the NSC activities.

[3] The NSC was abolished by a controversial law passed by the Parliament of Georgia on 31 October 2018, which became effective upon the inauguration of President Salome Zurabishvili on 16 December 2018.

[4] The decision was criticized by the then-President Giorgi Margvelashvili, the incumbent NSC secretary David Rakviashvili,[5] and foreign commentators such as Ronald S.