Georgia to host large-scale drills this year

Tbilisi. 28 January. REPORT.AZ/ Large-scale drills are planned to be held in Georgia in 2019, Georgian Defence Minister Levan Izoroia said.

Report's local bureau informed that the Minister said NATO member-states and 22 allies of the Alliance would like to participate in the military training to be held in March: “This will be the NATO-Georgia command-staff maneuvers. From this point of view, additional military hardware is not expected to be involved. Military drills will be extensive in terms of the number of participating countries. Also for the first time in the history of Georgia, the drills will be conducted under the leadership of the country's defense forces.

NATO-Georgian Joint Training and Evaluation Centre (JTEC) will be responsible for the drills.

Izoria noted that other large-scale military exercises will be organized in western Georgia: "In 2019, from a regional perspective the Agile spirit exercises will be held in the western part of the country. We want more countries to participate in the exercises than in the past year, and many countries have already confirmed their participation. Such a large-scale multinational military exercise will take place for the first time in the history of Georgia. "