Germany ‘Takes Responsibility’ to Help Georgia Integrate into NATO
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, November 28
For the first time in the history of Georgian-German military cooperation the countries have signed an agreement on defense cooperation, which emphasizes that Germany will continue to support NATO's open door policy towards Georgia and will do its utmost to enroll Georgia on its path to NATO integration, - Defence Minister of Georgia Levan Izoria said in Berlin, after the meeting with his German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen.
The ministry says that the "Military Cooperation between the Federal Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Ministry of Defense of Georgia" will help Georgia join the alliance and determine the priority directions of cooperation between the two countries in the defense and security fields.
The ministry reports that at the meeting held in the Federal Ministry of Defence of Germany on Monday, Izoria and Ursula von der Leyen discussed boosting the cooperation in the military field and set new directions.
In January this year, Germany allocated ˆ500,000 for several projects of the Substantial NATO-Georgia Substantial Package (SNGP).
Part of the money is being spent on the development of the Defence Institutional Building School (DIBS) in Georgia, while ˆ202,198 is for the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Centre (JTEC) in Krtsanisi, close to capital Tbilisi.
The financing of the SNGP - which aims to increase Georgia’s defense capabilities and resilience, increase interoperability with NATO and support Georgia’s NATO membership preparation process - depends on grants from NATO members, as the package has no proper budget in NATO.
In 2016 Germany also allocated ˆ500.000 for the implementation of the SNGP.
