DM Alasania: Agreement with NATO enables Georgia to buy air defense, anti-tank arms
TBILISI. Sept 10 (Interfax) - A new cooperation package approved at the NATO Wales summit may exempt Georgia from fulfilling the Membership Action Plan (MAP) as a stage of preparations for joining the alliance, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania said.
"This cooperation package has already been launched. We are holding consultations with NATO officials, and a deputy secretary general of the alliance will soon arrive in Georgia and be presented with a ready action plan," the minister said in a program aired by the Rustavi 2 channel.
"The cooperation package stipulates, amongst other tasks, the opening of a training center in Georgia in collaboration with NATO. This means both Georgian servicemen and servicemen from alliance member countries and partner states will be trained and certified in Georgia," the minister said.
NATO experts will be constantly present at the Georgian Armed Forces General Staff to monitor the implementation of the cooperation package, he pointed out.
"The cooperation package has a provision which is extremely important for our Armed Forces - Georgia will be able to buy modern defensive armaments from NATO, air defense and anti-tank weapons, everything Georgia may need to deter a possible act of aggression," Alasania said.
He stressed that Georgian cooperation with NATO and the United States was not targeted against a third country, as it was exclusively the matter of defensive weaponry whose procurement by Georgia was secretly banned after the August 2008 war.