TBILISI. Dec 29 (Interfax) - HMS Echo, a survey ship of the Royal Navy, called at the Batumi Port on Saturday, the government of Georgia's autonomous republic of Ajara reported on Saturday.
Tornike Rijvadze, the head of the regional government, met the ship's crew at the port, it said.
"As per tradition, the British ship's captain was welcomed with Georgian wine," it said.
In recent times, Batumi has greeted many warships from countries that are Georgia's partners, Rijvadze said.
"The British ship is patrolling the Black Sea territory, and we hope we will meet it frequently," Rijvadze said.
The presence of HMS Echo in the Black Sea "is part of her wider deployment to the Black Sea in support of the principle of freedom of navigation in international waters and a further demonstration of the UK's resolute support and commitment to Black Sea security," the UK's embassy to Georgia said in a statement.
HMS Echo will stay in Batumi through December 30, it said.
HMS Echo is officially classified as a multirole hydrographic survey ship. It is equipped with multibeam sonars and numerous towed sensors for collecting military data. The ship is armed with three M134 Minigun six-barrel 7.62mm machine guns, two 20mm quick-firing guns, and four large-caliber machine guns.