Stoltenberg to Russia: NATO-Georgia Joint Drills Carry No Regional Threats

Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, has stated that the NATO-Georgia joint military exercise underway from November 10 to November 20 in Georgia, carries no threats to regional peace and stability.

The statement came in response to concerns expressed by Russia’s Foreign Ministry this week.

“What NATO does is defensive, proportional and in full line with the Alliance’s international commitments. We will continue cooperation with our close partner - Georgia,” Stoltenberg’s statement read.

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry (MFA) also responded to Russia, saying the NATO-Georgia cooperation is aimed at providing peace, stability and development throughout the region, serving the interests of all parties.

According to the MFA, the NATO-Georgian drills confirm the firm Euro-Atlantic course of Georgia as well as deep cooperation with the Alliance itself.

“The NATO-Georgian drills allow us to make a more important contribution in terms of strengthening international security,” the MFA said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday, which claimed that the 10-day joint NATO-Georgia exercise near Tbilisi represents a threat to regional peace and stability.

"Georgia’s neighbors Abkhazia and South Ossetia have also expressed concern. We all remember that the statements made at the NATO summit in Bucharest encouraged Tbilisi’s attack on the Russian peacekeepers and civilians in Tskhinvali in August 2008,” the Russian statement said.

Moreover, the Russian side stresses that the role that Tbilisi is trying to play prevents improvements in Russian-Georgian relations and underlines that NATO “is doing nothing to hide its goal of military cooperation with Georgia, regarding it as part of its containment policy towards Russia.”

The NATO-Georgian drills are being conducted according to the cooperation package adopted at the NATO summit in 2014. The military exercise is being held on the territory of the NATO-Georgian Joint Training and Evaluation Center in Krtsanisi on the outskirts of the country’s capital of Tbilisi.

The exercise involves over 250 servicemen from 13 countries and is the first NATO-Georgia joint multinational brigade-level, Computer Assisted, Command Post exercise (CAX/CPX), which is included in the NATO exercises list.

This is the second NATO-Georgia exercise to take place through the SNGP (Substantial NATO-Georgia Package) framework.

Thea Morrison