A military maneuver began in Georgia on Monday, remaining, however, largely unnoticed among Western media, the Austrian newspaper Die Presse reported.
The objective of this maneuver is to prepare Georgia’s infantry for future missions in the "NATO Response Force", which is a 25,000-strong rapid deployment force with ground, air and sea components.
In February 2015, Russia already expressed its disapproval regarding the opening of a joint Georgia-NATO training center. The Russian envoy to NATO, Alexander Grushko, called this step a “provocation”.
Georgia is not a member of NATO, but has long had a special partnership with the military alliance. Thousands of Georgian soldiers have already fought in Iraq and Afghanistan together with US and NATO units, the newspaper reported.
