NATO, Georgia Joint Training Center May Open Before End of 2015

Georgia and NATO are continuing active cooperation on the establishment of a joint military training center that may be opened by the end of the year, head of General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces Vakhtang Kapanadze said Tuesday.

TBILISI (Sputnik) – In September 2014, NATO then-Secretary General Andres Fogh Rasmussen unveiled plans to establish a military training center in Georgia. Late in March, NATO's current chief Jens Stoltenberg said that the establishment of a joint training center in Georgia is a key measure to prepare the South Caucasus country for bloc membership.

“We are cooperating actively with NATO regarding the training center… The center will most likely be launched before the end of this year,” Kapanadze told journalists.

He added that the location of the future center has already been agreed upon but did not specify the coordinates.

Earlier this year it was reported that the NATO center may be located at Vaziani military base some 16.5 miles to the east from the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

Georgia and NATO began cooperation in 1994, as Georgia joined the Partnership for Peace, a program of practical bilateral cooperation between individual Euro-Atlantic partner countries and the alliance. After the 2004 pro-Western revolution in Georgia, the country's cooperation with the bloc became more intense. In April 2008, during the NATO summit in Bucharest, the heads of the alliance confirmed that Georgia could eventually become a member of NATO, if it complies with the alliance’s standards.