Last Georgian unit in NATO's Afghan mission begins drawdown
First troops of the 32nd Battalion began arriving from Afghanistan to Tbilisi on Monday. Photo via Ministry of Defence of Georgia.
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The last remaining Georgian troops in NATO's Resolute Support peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan began their drawdown on Monday, with the 32nd Battalion of the Georgian Defence Forces set to return to the homeland in phases.
Marking the beginning of the conclusion of the Georgian participation in the alliance's missions in Afghanistan, the first servicemembers of the battalion arrived at Tbilisi International Airport on Monday and were welcomed by GDF command, the defence ministry said.
The drawdown of the battalion was launched in accordance to the phased conclusion of NATO's peacekeeping presence in the country, announced earlier this year by the alliance.
Serving under American command at Bagram Air Base north of capital Kabul, the 32nd Battalion also had a company-sized unit under German command in Mazar-i-Sharif in the country's north. The latter unit returned to Georgia last month.
The return of the battalion - part of the 3rd Infantry Brigade - marks the end of their service in the Resolute Support mission over the past six months. Their deployment was the final stage in numerous rotations of GDF units in Afghanistan since 2004.
The defence ministry said the remaining troops of the 32nd Battalion would return home in parallel with the official conclusion of the Resolute Support mission, currently scheduled to close by September.
Georgian participation in NATO missions in Afghanistan have made the country the largest per capita contributor among non-alliance member states.
860 Georgian soldiers will start leaving Afghanistan in May as the US and NATO will begin withdrawing their troops from the country after two decades of war.NATO allies agreed on Wednesday, according to US plans, to start removing troops by May 1.The pull-out is to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US by jihadist organization al-Qaida.
In the latest round of peacekeeping duties for the NATO mission in Afghanistan, the 32nd Infantry Battalion of the Georgian Defence Forces left Tbilisi on Wednesday to relieve their colleagues in Bagram.
One hundred Georgian soldiers from the third infantry brigade have already left Afghanistan and returned to Georgia as the US and NATO have begun withdrawing their troops from the country after two decades of war.
A company-sized unit of Georgian peacekeepers returned from the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan earlier today after serving in a six-month deployment in Kabul alongside their NATO partners.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has attended an event celebrating the end of the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan earlier this morning where he stated that for 17 years 'our country and our heroic military have made a worthy contribution to world peace and the fight against terrorism'.
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The joint statement of 25 European Union member states and more than 40 other countries calls for ‘the safe and orderly departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country’ amid the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.
Tbilisi International Airport is being used as a way station by evacuation flights of the NATO Military Transportation Organisation, which is running daily flights to Kabul and back, the Georgian government reports. "From Tbilisi, passengers evacuated from Kabul are being transported abroad via various charter flights. Up to 2,000 individuals have been evacuated so far via Georgian territory,” said the statement.