Tbilisi – NATO experts are expected to arrive in Georgia soon to help set up a joint training center, the NATO secretary general's special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai, said on Georgia's Channel One.
He said NATO experts would arrive in Georgia after a NATO meeting to be held in days, to provide recommendations as to where the joint training center should be located and what focus it should have. But the final decision is to be made by Georgia, he said.
Appathurai also said that the training center to be built in Georgia should differ from other training centers already functioning in NATO countries. It should be interesting and appealing to NATO and partner countries, encouraging servicemen to arrive in Georgia for training under a rotation schedule, he said. Everything has been readied for the center, he said, noting that another group of NATO experts would arrive in Georgia in the summer to work with NATO’s office in Georgia.
NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow paid a two-day visit to Georgia last week. He visited the Vaziani military base near Tbilisi, where a NATO training center could be set up. Vershbow told reporters that the joint training center would be opened before the end of the year.
