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Georgian Defence Forces Lead NATO-Georgia Exercise 2019

March 18, 2019

Georgian Defence Forces Lead NATO-Georgia Exercise 2019

Tbilisi, Georgia 18 MAR 2019 – A landmark NATO-Georgia exercise began today at a military base near Tbilisi, involving military personnel from 24 NATO Allies, Partner Nations and several NATO command headquarters and affiliated centers.

First Deputy Defence Minister of Georgia Lela Chikovani and Deputy Chief of the NATO Joint Force Training Centre, Brigadier General Ladislav Jung opened the exercise at “Armyhall”, Georgian Ministry of Defence.

The exercise, a Computer Assisted/Command Post Exercise, is being held from 18-29 March at the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Centre in Krtsanisi National Training Centre and involves 350 personnel.

This is the second NATO-Georgia exercise to be held in Georgia through the framework of the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package, but the first time in which Georgian General Staff is leading a multinational crisis response exercise. It is also the first exercise which involves NATO planning processes from start to finish.

This exercise is designed to train a Georgian-led multinational brigade headquarters staff to plan, coordinate and execute scenario-based military responses to humanitarian crises. It is also testing the interoperability of Georgian, Allied and Partner Forces, as well as Georgian command and control capabilities.

The exercise is part of standard Alliance peace time activity with partner nations in the region, aimed at enhancing mutual knowledge and armed forces coordination. It marks another step in long-standing NATO-Georgia military cooperation and reflects the mutual commitment to strong defence, interoperability and shared approaches to international security.

The brigade-level exercise is scheduled by NATO Allied Command Transformation, conducted by the Georgian General Staff with the mentoring of NATO Land Command, and directed by the NATO-Georgia Joint-Training and Evaluation Center mentored by NATO Joint Force Training Centre.

The exercise will be comprised of 24 Allied Member States and partner countries (Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, United Kingdom, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Türkiye, United States; Azerbaijan, Georgia, Sweden).

Contact info

Ministry of Defence of Georgia, Strategic Communications & Media Relations Department:

David Uchadze: +995 591 295888 [email protected]

Irakli Gurgenidze +995 577 198866 [email protected]

NATO Allied Command Transformation Communications Office:

Lieutenant-Colonel George Vriniotis +1 757 747 3756 [email protected]