NATO’s Major Steps to make Georgia more Involved in Black Sea Security

Georgian Radio held an exclusive interview with James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, where he stated that NATO will take four clear steps to make Georgia more involved in the security of the Black Sea.

“The political decision on new support package has two reasons. The first, as you know, Georgia is a non-NATO member of the group of countries with which we have close bilateral cooperation. This cooperation is the best and exemplary and we want to deepen it. The second reason is that we all know that the security situation in the Black Sea region has deteriorated. This situation has worsened for Georgia, Ukraine, and NATO members as well. The reason for this is Russia’s aggressive actions in Georgia, Ukraine, and the Crimean Peninsula. Russia has used Crimea to increase its military presence in the Black Sea. It affects both us and Georgia and Ukraine,”- James Appathurai said.

According to the Representative, for the obvious motives, NATO wants to expand collaboration with Georgia, particularly in the framework of the Black Sea security.

“Therefore, we are going to take the following steps. First of all, we will involve Georgia in more activities, which we call “hybrid defense”. This implies protection from the methods and means that Russia uses against other countries, for example, cyber-attacks or misinformation, energy blockade, covert intelligence or military activity. We consider all these methods as part of one package. We are working with Ukraine and Georgia on these issues. We will strengthen our cooperation to protect ourselves from such threats,” Appathurai added.

“We have a program in which we want to involve Georgia. This is an Airspace Security Program that will allow Georgia to better understand what is happening in its airspace. Another component of the new package is the more active participation of Georgians and Ukrainians in joint exercises. Finally, our allies, NATO members, are considering a more active involvement of Georgia in military exercises. Including in the region.” Appathurai concluded.