Opening NATO Centre in Georgia escalates tension with Russia

Local politicians treat the opening of the NATO training centre near Tbilisi as the next step on Georgia's membership in the Alliance. They see a negative aspect of this event in a displeased reaction of Moscow. The Georgian leadership is sure that the NATO training centre will contribute to stability in the region.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the opening of the NATO joint training and assessment centre in Georgia took place on August 27 in the territory of the National Training Centre in Krtsanisi, a Tbilisi suburb. The initiative to establish the centre was a part of the package of enhanced cooperation of the parties in the military sphere, adopted in September 2014. The participants of the opening ceremony of the centre stated that it aims to strengthen the country's defence and will coordinate the training ranges throughout Georgia. The opening of the centre was treated by the official spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) as "a continuation of the provocative policy of the Alliance."

At this stage, it is known that training will begin in 2016.

The opening of the centre indicates that NATO sees Georgia as the nearest partner country, said Nika Chitadze, the head of the "Research Centre for Elections and International Security".

The expert has treated the negative reaction of Russia as a negative aspect in the creation of the NATO centre. In his opinion, Russia will believe that Georgia continues its military rhetoric; and the creation of the centre will not contribute to peaceful settlement of Abkhazia's and South Ossetia's problems.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.