Georgia to host NATO Military Committee, chair Admiral Bauer
The Military Committee provides NATO's political leadership with military advice and strategic direction. Photo via nato.int.
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Georgia will this week host the NATO Military Committee for the fourth time, with the highest military body of the Alliance set to discuss regional challenges and transformation of the Georgian Defence Forces with the hosts.
Headed by its new chair Admiral Rob Bauer, the Committee will meet both government and defence officials while also visiting the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Centre to learn about training capability and infrastructure.
In the two-day visit, held over Thursday and Friday, reforms ongoing at GDF, prospects of their further cooperation with the Alliance, and matters of ensuring Black Sea regional security will be reviewed.
The Military Committee is the oldest permanent body in NATO after the North Atlantic Council, tasked with providing military advice to the Council. It is described as an "essential link between the political decision-making process and the military structure of NATO".
The Chairman of the NATO Military Committee has urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia's occupied regions of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia, as the committee opened its meeting in Tbilisi earlier today.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, will be in Georgia this week, as high-ranking leaders of the alliance continue their official visits to the country.
“Georgia’s relationship with the alliance contains all the practical tools to prepare for eventual membership. We are working closely with Georgia on security in the Black Sea region, in response to Russia’s increasingly destabilising activities, and welcome the steps taken to implement the refreshed Substantial NATO-Georgia Package. We stand ready to enhance our support to Georgia, including in building resilience against hybrid threats, in training and exercises, and in secure communications. We look forward to the next NATO-Georgia exercise in 2022,” said the communique.
Five vessels of the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG2) were welcomed into Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi earlier today, with the interior ministry's coast guard department hosting the group for joint drills. Involving ships from Bulgarian, Italian, Romanian, Turkish and Spanish navies, the immediate reaction force fleet was welcomed by local authorities in Batumi before the Georgian coast guard and the NATO group embark on manoeuvres.