President hails “strength in partnership” at Noble Partner defence drills closing

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.

I believe that nothing can shake the power of partnership and unity. In the future, Georgia will keep on providing a noble and reliable partnership in strengthening peace in our region, the Black Sea and the world, because peace and freedom exist only when you have noble partners”, Zourabichvili said at the closing event.

She also highlighted the United States’ contribution to holding the exercise, by pointing to the title of the annual manoeuvres and noting it brought together “all the positive notions” of relations with “our main strategic partner, the United States”.

Today, a war is going on in Europe and in our region [in] Ukraine, and holding multinational exercises of this scale in Georgia acquires a special importance. The countries participating in Noble Partner 2022 give us the opportunity to increase our readiness and capabilities to ensure a stable and secure environment in the Black Sea region”, she continued.

Zourabichvili also extended her gratitude to the Eastern Command of the Georgian Defence Forces and the United States Command for their “exemplary leadership” in holding the latest edition of the multinational military drills.

More than 2,400 servicemembers from 21 countries were involved in this year’s Noble Partner manoeuvres that started on August 29.