Tag Archives: NATO

Georgian defence minister flies to Kabul

AUG.11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian defence minister Irakli Alasania flew to Kabul to meet his Afghan counterpart and sign various memorandums agreeing to broaden cooperation. The visit and the agreements underline Georgia’s desire to help Afghanistan and curry favour with the US. It wants to join NATO and is using its military as an extension of its diplomatic corps.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 195, published on Aug. 13 2014)

Georgia supports NATO

JULY 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Confirming its support for NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, Georgia said it would commit 750 soldiers to the non-combat mission phase, media reported. Georgia has been using its military as an extension of its diplomatic arm, supporting missions to curry favour with NATO which it hopes to join.

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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)

NATO proposes cooperation to Georgia

JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western military alliance would propose closer cooperation with Georgia but would not offer it the full membership that it so desperately craves, media reported. NATO holds its AGM in Cardiff in September.

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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Georgia keeps 700 soldiers in Afghanistan

JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – So eager is Georgia to show off its impeccable NATO credentials that it has agreed to retain one battalion of roughly 700 soldiers in Afghanistan next year.

Irakli Alasania, Georgia’s defence minister, announced the news after meeting NATO officials in Europe. This will effectively halve Georgia’s commitments in Afghanistan. At its peak Georgia had over 1,600 soldiers in Afghanistan supporting NATO missions. Twenty-nine Georgian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

The symbolism is all important. While most NATO member countries are rushing to extract their kit and soldiers from Afghanistan after a long, costly and frustrating campaign, Georgia has applied to remain with the final contingent of US forces.

Georgia is desperate to join NATO, partly as a bulwark against its former colonial overlord Russia with which it fought a brief war in 2008.

But NATO members are being cautious. Although they have shown support for Georgia’s NATO aspirations, and annual military exercises between Georgian and US forces started on June 9, they have also been wary of embracing it too warmly.

Both US President Barack Obama and Herman Chancellor Angela Merkel said that NATO would not offer Georgia membership at its annual conference in Cardiff in September.

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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)

Georgia waits for NATO membership

JUNE 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said NATO would not offer Georgia a membership deal when it meets in Cardiff, Wales, in September. Ms Merkel’s statement means that Georgia will have to wait further before it is offered a NATO membership, a key plank of its foreign policy. Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili was visiting Germany.

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(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)

Europe gives Georgia 30m euros

May 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Commission pledged to give 30m euros of financial aid to Georgia, media reported.European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy, made the declaration on a trip to Tbilisi. The EU and NATO have been trying to assure Georgia of its support since Russia’s de facto annexation of Crimea from Ukraine earlier this year.

NATO opens office in Tashkent

May 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – NATO officially opened its representative office in Tashkent, a year after setting it up. NATO has been cultivating improved relations with Uzbekistan because it wants to extract most of its kit from Afghanistan back to Europe through the Uzbek railway network.

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Kazakhstan gives $2 m aid to Afghanistan

May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- Kazakhstan will give Afghanistan around $2m of emergency aid in 2014, emergencies minister Vladimir Bozhko said. The West has been putting more pressure on Afghanistan’s neighbours, and especially Kazakhstan, to play amore prominent role in Afghanistan once NATO forces quit the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Momentum building for Georgia’s NATO entry

MAY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Momentum appears to be building for Georgia’s NATO entry, or at least a move in that direction.

William Hague, the British foreign minister, visited Tbilisi and spoke of his support for “Georgia’s Euro- Atlantic trajectory, for its territorial integrity and for its democratic process”. His visit was part of a trip to Ukraine and Moldova too and followed trips from the French and German foreign ministers to Tbilisi.

In 2008, at a summit in Bucharest, NATO said that one day Georgia would be a NATO member. What it didn’t say, though, was when.

Since then, Georgia has been waiting for it membership card. It has supported various NATO initiatives, including the war in Afghanistan. It had hoped that perhaps a summit in Wales later this year may be the entry point, although that notion has been dashed by various NATO officials.

At the same time as Mr Hague was in Tbilisi, Georgia’s defence foreign minister, Irakli Alasania, was in Washington visiting the US defence secretary Chuck Hagel.

And if that wasn’t enough Western diplomatic handshaking, French President Francois Hollande turned up on May 13 on the final stop of his tour of the South Caucasus. Again, Georgia’s potential integration topped the agenda.

Despite some reservations by some NATO members, the crisis in Ukraine appears to have created a real opportunity for Georgia. If Georgia can maintain the forward momentum it has generated over the past couple of weeks, NATO membership may not be far off.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

NATO woos Georgia

MAY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Against the backdrop of worsening violence in Ukraine, NATO said it wants to speed up bringing Georgia closer to the Western military
alliance. On a visit to Tbilisi, NATO Special Representative to Georgia, James Appathurai, said: “We are now looking, of course, at next steps, at bringing Georgia even
closer to NATO.”

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)