Georgia-NATO defence drills conclude in Tbilisi

A 10-day defence exercise between Georgia and its partner countries including NATO member states has ended.

The military training exercises concluded on Saturday with a special ceremony honouring participants of the intensive joint drills.

The NATO-Georgia Exercise 2016 was held from November 10-20 at the Joint Training and Evaluation Centre (JTEC), located at the Krtsanisi National Training Centre (KNTC) just outside Georgia's capital.

The drills involved Georgian officers along with 250 service members from 13 countries including 11 NATO member states.

The exercise featured planners and participants from Georgia and 13 other countries. Photo from the Ministry of Defence of Georgia's press office.

Focusing on developing skills of a multi-national staff working on brigade-level operations, the event represented the first-ever exercise where General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces (GAF) led the drills on NATO crisis reaction scenarios.

It was also the first exercise that was jointly planned by the alliance and its Georgian partners, said the Ministry of Defence of Georgia.

NATO Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai called the joint training exercises as "one more milestone in NATO-Georgia's long and deep cooperation” before the launch of the event earlier this month.

Service members from Georgia's partner countries attend the closing event of the joint training exercise at the JTEC on Saturday. Photo from the Ministry of Defence of Georgia's press office.

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

The NATO-Georgia Exercise 2016 followed the Agile Spirit 2015 drills; the first occasion held within the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package (SNGP) framework.

SNGP is a series of 13 defence capacity building measures agreed between Georgia and NATO at the Wales Summit in 2014.