US, Georgia ink defense cooperation agreement
The United States and Georgia have inked an agreement to boost security and defense cooperation between the two countries.
US Secretary of State John Kerry signed the Memorandum on Deepening the Defense and Security Relationship with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili during a ceremony in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, on Wednesday.
Kerry is on the first leg of a two-day visit to the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine ahead of a NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland.
"Our partnership is resolute and it is unwavering," Kerry said in a news conference, adding, "The Georgian people have chosen, and want a Euro-Atlantic future and the United States supports that goal."
Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008 after Tbilisi launched a major offensive against the independence-seeking republic of South Ossetia in a bid to retake control of the region. Russia, South Ossetia's main ally, responded to the attack by moving in its military forces and driving out Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Washington has already provided Tbilisi with military assistance but the new agreement would promote "defense and security cooperation in the areas of defense capacity building, military and security cooperation, and information sharing," according to the US Department of State.
Georgia, which hopes to join NATO, hosted joint military exercises with the Western military alliance in May in a move that was slammed by Russia as a provocative step to destabilize the Caucasus region.
Moscow and NATO have been at loggerheads in recent years over what Russia describes as the eastward expansion of the alliance. The Kremlin has increased the number of its soldiers near its borders with Eastern Europe and in surrounding countries where NATO has stationed troops.
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