US-Georgian Pact

From the AF Times:

“US, Georgia sign military training pact amid Russian threat on the Black Sea”

(Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (left) is greeted by Georgian Minister of Defense Juansher Burchuladze in Tbilisi, Georgia on Oct. 18, 2021. Along with Georgia, Austin will visit allies in Ukraine and Romania to reaffirm U.S. support for sovereignty and territorial integrity.)

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Georgian counterpart on Monday signed an agreement to extend U.S.-led military training for the embattled Black Sea ally as part of the secretary’s trip through the region to reaffirm support for eastern allies on the front lines of Russian aggression. The action came on the first leg of Austin’s trip, ahead of visits to other Black Sea allies Ukraine and Romania to deliver a message of “unwavering” support for their sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian threats. Since Russia’s war with Georgia, it has had a 13-year grip on Georgia’s breakaway territories, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, that Austin decried on Monday. “One point I’d like to be clear on is the United States condemns Russia’s ongoing occupation of Georgia and its attempts to expand influence in the Black Sea region through military coercion and malign activities,” Austin said while standing beside Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. “This is an important region, and its security and stability is crucial to fully realize a vision that we share of a Europe that is whole and free and at peace.

Georgia and Ukraine are NATO aspirants, and Romania is a member. Amid the Russian troop presence, NATO hasn’t agreed to advance Georgia’s membership, and the west has also been pressuring Georgia to curb corruption and reverse its democratic backsliding. Austin responded to a question about Georgia’s reform efforts during a press conference at the Georgian Defense Ministry with Georgian Defense Minister Juansher Burchuladze. “The U.S. has always been a strong supporter of Georgia’s democratic development and independence, and we consistently seek to strengthen its democratic institutions,” Austin said. “Our embassy noted some problems with the recent election, but we also expressed confidence in Georgia’s ability to improve.”

US Army insists next year’s Defender Europe is not canceled The U.S. Army is pushing back on claims made in congressional language that the Defender Europe exercise is canceled and will be replaced by smaller drills in 2022. However, the exercise will not be the division-level event it was originally intended to be. U.S. Army, Marine Corps and special operations forces have trained Georgian infantry troops to resist Russian aggression in their territory, but its three-year term was set to end in December. The follow-on program unveiled Monday is aimed at making bureaucratic reforms, but would also teach Georgian maneuver brigades to integrate fires and include engineering capabilities for the first time. “We are at a new level of collaboration and cooperation with the United States, which to maximum possible extent assures both Georgia’s defense and deterrence capabilities,” Burchuladze said.

Austin’s visits to the region follow a summer that saw U.S. Navy participation in live-fire drills on the Black Sea, where Russian warships were a constant presence. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet began its own exercise last month, firing its Bastion mobile anti-ship and surface-to-surface defense system at targets off the coast of Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The Black Sea region holds strategic value for Moscow as a corridor for energy, telecommunications and transit to the Mediterranean, and the high-level visits are bound to make Moscow uncomfortable, said Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe. “The last thing that the Kremlin wants is big Western investment in Georgia,” Hodges said. “So the fact that the secretary of defense of the United States is visiting three Black Sea nations is an important signal of the interests the United States has in the region, and we should be working hard on a strategy for the Black Sea region.”

The trip, which will wrap up at NATO’s defense ministerial meeting in Brussels, is his first to Europe since the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan. European allies have criticized the U.S. departure, and Russian officials have used it to argue America would abandon its Ukrainian allies. Austin thanked Georgia for its participation in the Iraq War and Afghanistan, where Georgia lost 32 troops and was a top non-NATO contributor to the NATO-led mission. It was the first visit from an American defense secretary since Chuck Hagel visited in 2014. Weapons were not part of Monday’s announcement, but in August, the Biden administration approved a potential foreign military sale to Georgia for as much as $30 million in Javelin anti-tank missiles and launchers. The 46 launchers and 82 missiles, made by a Raytheon Technologies-Lockheed Martin joint venture, would come from U.S. Army stocks, according to the announcement. It’s unclear how this week’s NATO meeting will address Georgia and Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Washington earlier this month “there is a lot in between nothing and full membership” and that he hopes “we can make some ambitious decisions at the next NATO Summit,” set for Madrid next year. Though U.S. defense leaders often talk about great power competition in the future tense, the Navy’s leaders in U.S. 6th Fleet say it's already taking place in Europe. Perhaps nowhere is that clearer than the Black Sea.

^ The US has done little to nothing to help Georgia in the past several years even though Russia continues to occupy Internationally-Recognized Georgian Territory. I guess it’s not that surprising since we continue to do the same over Russian occupied Ukrainian Territory. We need to start doing a lot more than words and promises. We need concrete action to support both Georgia and Ukraine. ^

https://www.airforcetimes.com/global/europe/2021/10/18/us-georgia-sign-military-training-pact-amid-russian-threat-on-the-black-sea/