Thursday, August 21, 2008

NATO official vows help for Georgian military

NATO official vows help for Georgian military (NSI News Source Info) TBILISI August 21, 2008: NATO is to help Georgia rebuild its defensive capability, the military alliance's regional representative said Thursday. "NATO will help Georgia in seven ways," said Robert Simmons, NATO's special envoy for Central Asia and the South Caucasus. "First of all this means air defense and the restoration of defensive infrastructure." He said that the main task now was for Russia to pull back its forces in accordance with the international ceasefire plan. Simmons said NATO backed the territorial integrity of Georgia and would do whatever it could to keep the country unified, adding that the alliance remained one of Georgia's main partners. Relations between Moscow and the North Atlantic alliance have sunk to new lows after the Russian military intervention in Georgia that followed Tbilisi's assault on its separatist region of South Ossetia two weeks ago. The alliance announced Tuesday the creation of a NATO-Georgia commission and the freezing of contacts with Moscow while Russian troops remained in Georgia. Russia pulled out of a joint exercise in the Baltic Sea and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the alliance of taking Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili under its protection.

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