First NATO-Georgia joint multinational brigade-level military exercise starts

For the next 10 days a Georgian military training centre located just outside capital Tbilisi is hosting the NATO-Georgia Exercise 2016 in a "landmark" occasion that will strengthen Georgia-NATO relations.

This will be the first NATO-Georgia joint multinational brigade-level, Computer Assisted, Command Post exercise, which is included in NATO exercises list.

Thirteen NATO allied member states and two partners are providing officers to participate in the November 10-20 exercise at the Krtsanisi National Training Centre, including Turkey, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belgium, Slovenia, United Kingdom, United States, Ukraine and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Today Georgia's Ministry of Defence spoke about the significance of the exercises.

The NATO-Georgia Exercise 2016 is a landmark exercise for Georgia and a significant milestone in strengthening NATO-Georgia military cooperation,” Georgia’s Ministry of Defence said.

The exercise will test the interoperability of Georgian, allied and partner forces, as well as command and control capabilities.

This will be the second NATO-Georgia exercise to take place through the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package (SNGP) framework - a series of 13 defence capacity building measures agreed between Georgia and NATO at the Wales Summit in 2014.

NATO-Georgia Exercise starting today, to share knowledge and expertise. Fictional scenario, but real cooperation.

— James Appathurai (@JamesAppathurai) November 10, 2016

NATO’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai welcomed the beginning of the exercises today. He stressed the training exercises were "one more milestone in NATO-Georgia's long and deep cooperation”.

On his official Facebook page Appathurai said the the exercise also recognised "Georgia’s devoutness to strong defence, NATO operations and international security”.