Defense Minister Visits Afghanistan
Defense Minister, Tina Khidasheli, is visiting Georgian troops serving in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.
During the visit, which is her third one in Afghanistan since becoming the Defense Minister in May 2015, she met deputy commander of the Resolute Support Mission Lt. Gen. Sandy Storrie, as well as acting defense minister of Afghanistan.
On Sunday she participated in a ceremony to dedicate Georgian fallen soldiers’ memorial at the Resolute Support mission headquarters in Kabul.
The memorial bears the names of those 31 Georgian soldiers who died while serving in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. The most recent fatality occurred in September, 2015.
With 861 soldiers Georgia was the third largest troop contributor to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan after the United States (6,954 troops) and Germany (980 troops) as of end-May.
The Georgian troops, whose duties focus on security and rapid reaction force, are deployed in Kabul; at the Bagram Air Field, and Camp Marmal in Mazar-i-Sharif.