Multinational military exercises Agile Spirit with the participation of Georgian commandos, trained under NATO countries special program, are continuing at Orpolo firing range in Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia. The US Marine Corps and personnel from the NATO member-states and partners - Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia and Ukraine, are also participating in it. Heavy American tanks 'Abrams' and seven-ton military trucks and artillery were delivered to Georgia by sea from Bulgaria specifically for these exercises.
It is not the first time when the main battle tank of the American army, which is considered to be one of the most heavy and powerful in the world, appears in the Caucasus. In May, it was used in the course of tripartite Georgian-American-British military exercises to train Georgian units of the NATO Response Force.
Agile Spirit-2016 exercises differ from similar maneuvers on the territory of Georgia due to two circumstances. Firstly, they are carried out in several parallel formats - many days of fire training at Orpolo firing rangeand command and staff exercises on the outskirts of Tbilisi, at the former Russian military base 'Vaziani'. Secondly, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg himself will observe the exercises. He arrived in Georgia on September 7 to attend a session of the Euro-Atlantic Council at the level of member-states ambassadors.
Jens Stoltenberg
At the beginning of exercises, Chief of Georgian General Staff Vakhtang Kapanadze said that all the participants of maneuvers are brothers in arms. "Those states that want peace are presented here," Kapanadze said. He believes that exercises of this scale, held in Georgia, with the participation of "brothers in arms" and in the presence of NATO Secretary General confirms that "Georgia is not alone, Ukraine is not alone, Romania and Bulgaria were not forgotten, and even the United States are not alone".
"Heroism has no nationality or religion. I'm glad that our combat brotherhood will be forged here," he stressed.
Vakhtang Kapanadze
According to Georgian Ministry of Defense, the purpose of these exercises is to improve cooperation with armies of the US and other countries of the alliance, as well as to maintain regional security. Combat training and command and staff exercises will last until September 9. It is not clear yet whether they will be useful for NATO countries or not. It is high likely that these events, both of which are held under the auspices of NATO, were designed to demonstrate that military-political bloc is still interested in the region of the South Caucasus, as well as to sweeten the pill for Georgia's pro-Western establishment, since its positions were damaged when NATO refused to prvide a "road map" on accession to the alliance at the recent Warsaw Summit.
