Georgian President Meets with UK Defense Secretary
During his visit to the United Kingdom on July 12 Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili held talks in London with UK Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon.
After the talks Saakashvili made a brief comment to Georgian reporters, saying that boosting military cooperation between the two countries was discussed.
“Georgians can learn military tactics well. But we need trainers, instructors and more advisors for this. Our officers need to learn English as well, and the British militaries can help us in this,” Mikheil Saakashvili said.
The UK already has one special civilian defense advisor to the Georgian Defense Minister.
The British military advisory training team (BMATT) is also helping Georgian troops, which have already been trained in frames of the U.S.-funded Georgia Train-and-Equip Program, in peace support operations training courses.
At the moment, British and Georgian servicemen are holding a joint military exercise dubbed ‘Georgian Express – 2004’ at the Vaziani military bases near Tbilisi.
A company-sized group of British officers and soldiers from the rifle volunteers hold bilateral infantry training together with Georgian servicemen from the 11th brigade. Joint exercises will last till July 17.
