New military reform to be carried out in Georgia

In recent days, a meeting of the National Security Council has taken place in Georgia where a reform of the country's armed forces was discussed.

Reports were delivered by the head of the Defense Ministry and General Staff, Tina Khidasheli and Vakhtang Kapanadze.

It was decided at the meeting to significantly change the structure of the armed forces of Georgia, President Giorgi Margvelashvili said after the meeting.

"Today we discussed the important issues of the country's defense, the new structure of the Georgian armed forces, we also established a new structure according to which Georgian armed forces will consist of two commands – the East and the West commands,’’ Sputnik Georgia cites him as saying.

President added that the upcoming summit of NATO and Georgia's position on the issue were also discussed at the meeting. "Our position is clear: Georgia aspires to join NATO, and we will work for it in terms of the future of the summit," he stressed.

Tina Khidasheli told about the results of the last meeting today, describing the planned changes as a fundamental reform. "Our goal is to make the Georgian armed forces more mobile, combat-ready and compatible with NATO systems. Tomorrow President will sign the decree, according to which Georgia is to have two operational commands - the East and the West one,’’ Georgia Online cites her as saying.

The internal structure of the command will be determined by the order of the Minister of Defense.

According to Khidasheli, it is planned to implement these changes as soon as possible. "I have to do it be the end of the month and the main task is to make our armed forces easily operated, so that there was no absolute centralization and resources could protect all parts of Georgia, preventing it from split down in the middle as it was during the August war,’’ the head of the Defense Ministry explained.