NATO launches military training centre in Georgia

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili and visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday launched a joint training center of troops in Georgia.

The facility, known as NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Center (JTEC), is located in Krtsanisi, near Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili was present at the inauguration ceremony.

While extending the hope that the center would help to improve the regional security, stability and peace, PM Irakli Gharibashvili stressed the center is not directed against any country.

NATO Allied leaders agreed at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Georgia will become a NATO member, provided it meets all necessary requirements. Georgia is currently not a NATO member.

The center, which is belived to be part of the "substantial package" of cooperation, was said to be offered to Georgia at the NATO summit held in Wales of United Kingdom in September in an effort to help Georgia with its aspirations to NATO membership.

Training of Georgian military units at the center is expected to start in 2016. The JTEC will also help facilitate joint exercises between troops from Georgia, NATO and partner nations, according to information from NATO.

Source: XINHUA