NATO exercises in Georgia coming to an end
31.05.2009 14:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A month of NATO exercises in Georgia are coming to
an end.
About 700 soldiers from 13 countries have taken part in the NATO
exercises in Georgia, which culminate on Sunday with a field day of
maneuvers.
At the start of the exercise NATO set up a staff headquarters at the
Vaziani military base outside the capital Tbilisi. The first "command
post" exercise focused on coordinating NATO procedures in a
crisis-response situation. A second and larger exercise, based on
peacekeeping training, runs until 3 June.
Officials in the South Ossetia were quick to suggest NATO’s military
exercises had ulterior motives.
"We do not rule out that the NATO-led exercises in Georgia are
deliberately held in order to thwart the election in South Ossetia,"
Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Dzhioyev said on Friday.
NATO has denied the exercises are aimed at Russia or Georgia’s
breakaway regions, either in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another
pro-Russian territory.
President Dmitry Medvedev has described the exercises as "dangerous"
because they are taking place in close proximity to South Ossetia
where Russian troops are stationed.
He also described them as "provocative" because they come so soon
after the brutal conflict between Georgia and Russia, BBC reported.