Georgia hosting Maple Arch 21 multinational defence drills
Maple Arch sees around 350 troops involved in the development of interoperability and overall ties between the cooperating militaries. Photo via 5th Canadian Division.
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A Canadian-mentored multinational command drills aiming to develop interoperability between international partners is hosted in Georgia for the first time, with the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Center hosting the opening on Wednesday.
Over the next nine days, servicemembers from Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine will work to develop staff-level Command Post/Computer-Assisted Exercise routines during the event.
EXERCISE MAPLE ARCH 2021 OPENING CEREMONY
— LITPOLUKRBRIG (@MNBHQ) November 17, 2021
NOV 17,21 - Opening Ceremony took place at the NATO Georgia Training and Evaluation Center of the Georgian Defence Forces, Krtsanisi, Georgia
All MA21 participants????????????????????????????????????????????????????????attended the ceremony to mark the beginning of the #EX #MA21 pic.twitter.com/TLGiPJb48j
Organised by the Department of National Defence of Canada and co-led by the Eastern Command of the Georgian Defence Forces, Maple Arch sees around 350 troops involved in the development of interoperability and overall ties between the cooperating militaries.
They also work to bring troops from non-NATO member states closer to the Alliance standards "in the process of planning and conducting of peacekeeping operations", the Georgian defence ministry said in a release for the drills.
Our #5DivSoldiers participated in the Opening Ceremony for Exercise #MAPLEARCH21 today at the NATO Georgia Training & Evaluation Center in Krtsanisi, Georgia. @MNBHQ pic.twitter.com/ImMmT5JesH
— 5thCanadianDivision (@5CdnDiv_5DivCA) November 17, 2021
The Polish defence ministry said the exercise aimed to train unit headquarters and staff elements to "conduct Peace Support Operations [...] according to [NATO] standards".
Select units from the Eastern Command, as well as personnel from the JTEC centre are representing the Georgian participation in the multinational effort, set to run through November 27.
Georgian units have participated in Maple Arch editions since 2018, when a Georgian Defence Forces battalion joined their counterparts.