Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday stressed the importance of the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in the South Caucasus country of Georgia.

Clinton described, at a joint press conference with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, as the single best thing for Georgia to have free and fair elections that will result in fully democratic transfer of powers.

"We expect Georgia will hold free and fair elections this fall and then completely democratic transfer of power in 2013 and we believe that every party and every candidate should respect the political process and we look forward to welcoming a strong relationship with whomever the Georgian people choose," said Clinton.

Georgian President Saakashvili told the joint press conference that the process of power transfer was already underway in Georgia. The president cited as example of transfer of power through the municipal election in Tbilisi.

"Let me just emphasize how important is that the decisions that are made by Georgia's leaders and citizens demonstrate a firm commitment to building of democratic institutions. That's what president was just saying that in any democracy institutions have to be more important than people; individual leaders should come and go, but institutions should be strengthened and one of the ways of doing that is to have election -- first for the parliament then for presidency -- that are universally regarded as valid; that will speak volumes about where Georgia is on your path of sustainable democracy," Clinton said.

Clinton also met some leaders of the Georgian opposition parties -- the New Right Party, Christian-Democratic Movement party, Republican Party, Our Georgia-Free Democrats party, and Georgian Dream.

The U.S. secretary of state said that her country would provide Georgia with training and support to better monitor its coasts and skies; with assistance in upgrading Georgia's utility helicopter fleet so as to allow the country to transport more easily supplies and people throughout the country; and with giving Georgian officers 21st-century training they need for their changing missions.

"With these efforts, Georgia will be a stronger international partner with improved capacity for self-defense," said Clinton.

It was Clinton's second visit to Georgia. She visited the country in 2010.

The U.S. secretary of state arrived in Batumi from Yerevan of Armenia and will travel to Baku of Azerbaijan to complete her trip to the South Caucasus.