Germany Allocates Additional Funds for Georgia-NATO Package
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, January 23
(BRUSSELS) - The Government of Germany decided to allocate additional funds for the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package (SNGP), which aims to boost Georgia’s self-defence capabilities and upgrade the country’s military standards to the Alliance’s levels.
Germany’s Ambassador to NATO Hans-Dieter Lucas has signed a decree which envisages allocating of €500,000 for SNGP projects.
In 2016, Germany allocated the same amount of money for the package implementation.
Part of the money is intended to be spent on the development of the Defence Institutional Building School (DIBS) in Georgia, while €202.198 is for the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Centre (JTEC) in Krtsanisi, in the outskirts of Tbilisi.
The German government says through the step they encourage Georgia’s fast integration into NATO.
Financing of the SNGP, which aims to increase Georgia’s defence capabilities and resilience, increase interoperability with NATO and support Georgia’s NATO membership preparation process, is dependent on the grants by NATO members, as the package has no own budget in NATO.
As a part of the Defence and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative (DCB), during the 2014 NATO Wales Summit, Georgia received the SNGP.
SNGP currently consists of the following 14 initiatives: Joint Training and Evaluation Centre (JTEC), Defence Institutional Building School (DIBS), Logistic Capability Development, Intelligence Sharing & Secure Communication System, Aviation, Air Defence, Special Operations Forces, Military Police, Acquisition, Maritime Security, Cyberdefence, Strategic Communications, Crisis Management and Counter-mobility. Strategic and Operational Planning initiative was successfully accomplished in November 2017.
As of September 2017, the implementation of SNGP is supported by 28 NATO member and 2 partner states. NATO core team, led by German officer with American and Romanian deputies, is responsible for coordination and monitoring of the package implementation process.
