Georgia and NATO announce joint exercises

The exercises, which have been planned since 2020, will take place in the Georgia-NATO Joint Training and Evaluation Center (JTEC) with representatives of 23 NATO member states set to take part.

“The exercises will help increase interoperability between the military of Georgia and NATO member and partner countries,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It specified that the goal of the upcoming exercises would be to develop the skills necessary for planning operations by using computer simulations, as well as to share knowledge and experience. The exercises would be the third of their type held since 2016 and are a part of the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package, which was approved at the 2014 Wales Summit.

In 2008, in the Bucharest Summit Declaration the alliance announced that NATO welcomed “Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO.” The summit participants agreed that eventually these countries would “become members of NATO.”

This decision was condemned by Moscow which consistently opposed NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders.

The possibility of Ukraine becoming a member of the bloc has been one of the reasons for Russia's ongoing military offensive, despite numerous assurances from NATO that neither Ukraine’s and Georgia’s memberships are currently on its agenda.