Civil Georgia
October 9, 2014
Moscow Warns Against ‘NATO Infrastructure’ in Georgia
Tbilisi: In response to Russian Foreign Ministry’s warning that deploying NATO “infrastructure” in Georgia would undermine stability in the region, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania said that the only “huge threat” to the region is Russia and “NATO infrastructure” will be created in Georgia “as agreed” by the alliance members at the Wales summit.
In a press statement on the twenty-ninth round of Geneva talks, held on October 8, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that at the meeting the Russian side “expressed concern in connection to the Georgian media reports about plans to deploy military infrastructure on the territory of Georgia in the interests of NATO.”
“Such actions would create threat to emerging stability in the Transcaucasus region,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The statement does not specify “infrastructure” in question, but reference is apparently made to a purported NATO training center on which Georgian and NATO officials were speaking about as part of the package that was offered to Georgia at the NATO Wales summit in September.
Commenting on Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania told journalists on October 9 that “the only huge threat to the region is Russian occupying forces in our country”, stationed in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and “ongoing aggression carried out by Russia against Ukraine.”
“NATO infrastructure will be created in Georgia,” Alasania said. “This is an agreement that was reached at the NATO summit [in Wales]. NATO-Georgia package serves this purpose – to open NATO infrastructure in Georgia in order to conduct joint military exercises and by doing so to boost deterrent factor against aggression, which is coming from Russia, and also to increase our defense capabilities. This is already decided and it will only contribute to the stability in our region,” he said.
He also said that Tbilisi has handed over its proposals on implementation of the package to NATO earlier this week and is now waiting for the response from the Alliance, expected within a month.
The Defense Minister said that the plan is to set up a “joint Georgian-NATO training center” which would be available for both Georgian and Alliance member states to provide training to their troops, as well as to servicemen from NATO partner states.
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