NATO Hopes to Open Training Center in Georgia in 2015

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow and Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia David Usupashvili, Jan. 25, 2015From Retuers:  NATO said on Friday it hoped to open a training centre in Georgia by the end of the year, signalling a strengthening of its relationship with the former Soviet republic that is likely to antagonise Russia.

Georgia’s government has long hoped to join the military alliance. But Russia, which fought a 2008 war with Georgia over two Moscow-backed breakaway regions, has said such a move would threaten its security….

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow said the new training centre would be set up as part of a package of measures to boost Georgia’s defence capabilities agreed at a summit in September.

“We are hoping that it can be operational by the end of this year,” Vershbow told reporters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

From NATO:  The NATO-Georgia Commission will meet February 5. NATO defense ministers will meet with Georgian Defense Minister, Mindia Janeldidze.

NATO NATO Partnerships Security & Defense The Caucasus

Image: NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow and Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia David Usupashvili, Jan. 25, 2015 (photo: NATO)