Xinhua News Agency
January 30, 2015
NATO deputy chief visits Georgia
TBILISI: Visiting NATO deputy secretary- general Alexander Vershbow on Thursday assured Georgia that the military alliance will help the South Caucasus country to reform, modernize and strengthen its security and defense sector via a joint training center.
Vershbow’s two-day visit includes a tour of a possible location for a joint Georgia-NATO training center which will be opened later this year in Georgia.
“It will help Georgia to reform, modernize and strengthen security and defense sector and it will also be open to other NATO allies and to some other NATO partners as well since Georgia’s geography and the high quality of its own armed forces together create unique possibilities to train together broad group of partners and allies and to foster cooperation and interoperability, ” the deputy NATO chief said after meetings with senior Georgian government officials including Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili.
“It (the joint training center) will also be a visible demonstration of NATO’s commitment to Georgia,” he added. The NATO official described Georgia as being an exporter of security thanks to its remarkable democratic and defense reforms.
“NATO very strongly supports Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” Alexander Vershbow said, “Georgia is a great partner to NATO and a great contributor to our operations which makes Georgia an exporter of security.”
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Ministry of Defence of Georgia
January 31, 2015
Alexander Vershbow Attended Field Training of Georgian Company
On the second day of the official visit to Georgia NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow attended the field training at Vaziani Range. Georgian Defence Minister Mindia Janelidze, Chief of General Staff of the GAF, Major General Vakhtang Kapanadze and Commander of Land Forces Command – East, Colonel Alexandre Kiknadze hosted the foreign guest.
The Georgian Armed Forces held a demonstrative training especially for the NATO Deputy Secretary General aimed at presenting him the abilities of the Vaizani Range. The main purpose of the training was to demonstrate the perfection of interaction between combined forces during military operations and rapid reaction.
Following the exercise, Alexander Vershbow emphasized high professionalism of the Georgian military and potential of Vaziani firing ground: “The training going here at Vaziani by the professional skills of the Georgian Armed Forces is a very impressive performance. Just confirm, I have heard for many years from NATO Commanders, from American Commanders that the Georgian troops are among the best they have ever seen as they are doing great job in our real operations in Afghanistan. This range curtly has tremendous potential for the future and it certainly will be one of the candidates for the Joint Training and Evaluation Center that NATO has agreed to establish with Georgia in the coming months. So, real experts will come to see it, hopefully, next month. But I can say as non-expert, I am very impressed”.
Before the training, Assistant to Commander of IV Mechanized Brigade, Major Davit Paposhvili briefed the invited guests about the aim and mission of the exercise, participating elements, security aspects and the presumable action plan of the enemy.
A special program was developed for the exercise. According to an imitated scenario, the main task of the training was to create obstacles for the enemy forces not to enable them to advance while carrying out attacks.
The demonstrative training was a large-scale exercise with participation of 425 military personnel from the 42nd Mechanized Battalion of IV Mechanized Brigade, a medical team, aviation, artillery, engineer and tank units. Two units of Su-25 jet fighters, UH-1H Iroquois, as well as armored technique of IV Mechanized Brigade and artillery systems of I Artillery Brigade were involved in the training.
Experience from the Georgian soldiers wounded in August War 2008 and ISAF mission were also shared in the training. The Georgian wounded warriors participated in the exercise as observers. The military servicemen of Command and Staff College of the Davit Agmashenebeli National Defence Academy attended the training as well.
Following the demonstrative training, NATO Deputy Secretary General, Defence Minister of Georgia and Chief of the General Staff visited IV Mechanized Brigade. Commander of the military unit, Colonel Zaza Leladze hosted the guests at virtual simulation training center. Later on, Alexander Vershbow viewed Georgian army equipment and the armament of the IV Mechanized Brigade that meets NATO standards.
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