NATO Survey Team Visit

Georgia recently hosted the NATO survey team. The scoping team arrived in Georgia to conduct an initial assessment of Georgia’s capabilities and exiting infrastructure in order to identify the requirements and plan-specific actions that are needed to successfully implement the Joint Training and Evaluation Center’s Project. The team was led by a representative of Norway, with officers from Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark and Germany, supported by the United States of America.

Establishment of the Joint Training and Assessment Center (JTEC) in Georgia is one of the most ambitious and key initiatives under the NATO-Georgia Substantial Package. One of the aims of the JTEC is to train and evaluate military representatives of the Georgian Armed Forces, as well as NATO member and partner countries. The centre will be designed to conduct pre-deployment training and certification of units assigned to NATO-led operations. The centre will have capabilities to host multinational, joint and combined exercises and training in support of the Connected Forces Initiative (CFI).

Deputy Minister of Defence of Georgia Levan Girsiashvili and Head of NATO Liaison Office William Lahue held a briefing for the representatives of media to inform them about establishment of the JTEC.

“We do acknowledge the significance of establishing the Center in Georgia and are committed to investing all available resources to effectively and implement this project along with other initiatives of the package. We see the center as an institution with its own office that will use all existing training capabilities of the Defence Ministry. We do also appreciate NATO’s dedication to contributing to the successful implementation of the JTEC project that is essential to meet the targets.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that upon completion of the NATO Team visit, we will have initial ideas on possible location of the centre and rough estimates for the project implementation,” stated Levan Girsiashvili.

“The center is one of the components of the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package endorsed at the NATO Summit in Wales last September. The Center will provide training to support Georgia, other partners and Allies in maintaining and increasing interoperability. NATO experts will support the Georgian Armed Forces in developing this training facility and provide advice on its possible location,” stated William Lahue.

In the framework of the visit the NATO survey team had a tour around the Krtsanisi Training Area and Vaziani. Upon completion of the NATO Team visit, the sides shared initial ideas on possible location of the Centre and rough estimates for the project implementation.