Georgia opens new military base to be built to NATO standards
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI
AP Worldstream
Apr 06, 2005
President Mikhail Saakashvili inaugurated a new military base in
western Georgia on Wednesday, a base built to NATO standards to advance
the Caucasus nation’s efforts of joining the trans-Atlantic alliance.
The US$4.8 million (Aâ~B¬3.73 million) base, built about 280
kilometers (170 miles) west of the capital, Tbilisi, will be able to
house up to 3,000 military personnel for training maneuvers and will
have modern facilities, defense officials said.
“This will be a base that meets all European standards,” Saakashvili
said at a ground breaking ceremony. Defense officials gave no other
details.
The base is located 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the border with
Abkhazia, which has had de facto independence since breaking away
from the central government in a war in the 1990s.
Saakashvili, a Western-trained, former opposition leader who was
vaulted to the presidency in a popular uprising known as the Rose
Revolution, has said membership with NATO _ and the European Union _
is a goal of the Caucasus nation. The United States is spending US$50
million to help train four battalions of Georgian servicemen to be
used in international peacekeeping operations.
The announcement comes as Georgia and Russia spar over the withdrawal
of two Russian bases left over from the Soviet Union.
Russia has said it needs at least three years, perhaps even a
decade, to complete the pullout and also is demanding millions
in compensation. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said last
month the cost of withdrawing would be as much as US$300 million
(Aâ~B¬234 million).
Russian observers have said that Moscow is concerned that pulling out
all its forces from Georgia could jeopardize its base in neighboring
Armenia, one of Moscow’s closest allies in the region.
Armenia does not share a border with Russia, and all Russian equipment
and personnel have to transit Georgian territory to get there.
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