Noble Partner drills officially kick off in Georgia with 2,400 servicemembers
The opening ceremony featured representatives of the Georgian Defence Ministry, defence attachés of the countries participating in the drills, as well as NATO experts, the alliance’s liaison office and the European Union Monitoring Mission. Photo: Defence Ministry.
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This year’s Noble Partner multinational defence drills officially opened at the 4th Infantry Brigade training grounds in Vaziani near Tbilisi on Monday, with over 2,400 servicemembers from 21 countries involved in the manoeuvres.
Georgia is hosting the exercise for the sixth time, with troops from Japan and Sweden featuring for the first time, the Ministry of Defence of Georgia said.
Major General Giorgi Matiashvili, the Chief of the Georgian Defence Forces, addressed the military personnel of Georgia, the United States, NATO member and partner countries involved in the exercise by emphasising the importance of cooperation between partners and ensuring a stable environment in the Black Sea region.
Photo: Defence Ministry.
The opening ceremony featured representatives of the Georgian Defence Ministry, defence attachés of the countries participating in the drills, as well as NATO experts, the alliance’s liaison office and the European Union Monitoring Mission.
Photo: Defence Ministry.
Noble Partner is led by the Eastern Command of the Georgian Defence Forces and the US Europe and Africa Command, and supported by the Georgian-based Joint Training and Evaluation Centre.
Servicemembers from Georgia, the United States, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Greece, the United Kingdom, Türkiye, Slovakia, Norway, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Poland, Japan, Lithuania-Poland-Ukraine Multinational Brigade and the Swedish Armed Forces are involved in this year’s edition.
More than 2,400 servicemembers from 21 countries will be involved in this year’s Noble Partner defence drills in Georgia, with the exercise set to feature troops from Japan and Sweden for the first time, the Ministry of Defence of Georgia announced on Tuesday.
Georgia is celebrating the founding day of its Defence Ministry on September 9. Georgian Defence Minister Juansher Burchuladze has announced that the ministry’s employees and defence forces’ military servicemen with 25 or more years of service were awarded cash prizes on the occasion of the anniversary.
The Noble Partner 2020 exercises have come to an end today after more than 10 days of military exercises at Vaziani base.
The Noble Partner 2020 multinational military exercise has officially begun today, with the participation of over 2,700 troops from Georgia, the US, the UK, Poland and France. The exercises will include situational training, live-fire drills, and combined mechanised maneuvers at Georgia’s Vaziani and Camp Norio training areas.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday attended the closing event of the Noble Partner multinational defence drills and called the exercise “another consistent step” in deepening international cooperation, developing professionalism of the Georgian Defence Forces and its interoperability with NATO.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Friday hailed the “strength in partnership” between Georgian and allied militaries, noting “peace and freedom only exist when you have noble partners” at the closing event of the Noble Partner multinational defence drills in Georgia.
The Georgian Ministry of Defence is marking the 31st anniversary of its founding, with the date coinciding with the closing of this year’s Noble Partner multinational defence drills in the country.
Georgian firefighters and rescuers of the Emergency Management Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Saturday completed swift water and mountain rescue training in Georgia's central-western Borjomi Municipality and Racha region, while receiving certificates.
A mobile surveillance systems integration and service centre was opened in the Operational-Technical Agency of the State Security Service, with the support of the United States Defence Threat Reduction Agency, the Service announced on Sunday.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday was hosted for a demonstration of drones carried out by a recently launched Georgian-Polish defence enterprise.
Irakli Beraia, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Defence and Security Committee, on Tuesday called “anti-state, misinforming and shameful” the claim by Teona Akubardia, an MP from the opposition Lelo party, who earlier during the day said the Georgian Defence Forces’ non-involvement in NATO exercises was a “gift to the Kremlin and damaging to our defence capabilities”.
The Georgian Defence Ministry on Tuesday issued a statement regarding the question of participation of the country’s Defence Forces in the multinational exercise Defender 2023 and said the “biassed” information spread by some media outlets and individuals was “another provocation” towards the Ministry.
The Georgian Defence Forces held a situational field exercise Mstovari 2023 to select participants for the annual international military Exercise Cambrian Patrol, which is set to be hosted in Wales in October, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday.