NATO Plans to Open Georgia Training Center by Year’s End

January 31st, 2015

David Schulberg

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow announced today that the alliance intends to open a new military training center in the Republic of Georgia by year’s end, threatening to add to NATO-Russia tensions.

Officials say this is part of an effort to strengthen both their relationship with Georgia and the nation’s military capabilities. Georgia’s military was largely destroyed during the brief 2008 Russo-Georgian War.

Since that war, which led to the de facto secession of the Republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, Georgia’s efforts to join NATO have been more or less permanently on hold, with the alliance generally not accepting nations whose national boundaries aren’t under their direct control.

With the ongoing Ukraine Civil War, NATO is pushing for a build-up in Eastern Europe, and planning to set up a number of new units across the Russian frontier to “confront” Russia, and the move to build up Georgia’s military seems to be a continuation of that trend.