TBILISI. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - In spite of pressure from certain political forces, including those in Georgia, the republic should not abandon military cooperation with the United States and NATO, Georgy Baramidze, chairman of the Georgian parliamentary committee on defense and security, told a plenary session of the parliament on Tuesday.
The statement was made after Dzhemal Gogitidze, leader of the Vozrozhdenie faction representing the Adzharian autonomous republic, criticized the country's authorities saying that the current policy "turns Georgia into a military proving range."
Baramidze said that he personally and most other Georgian lawmakers "welcome the decision of the country's leadership to involve foreign military specialists in retraining Georgian Armed Forces units for it helps strengthen the army and, subsequently, national security."
At the same time the lawmaker said he was afraid that the authorities "that practically destroyed the country, lost Abkhazia and South Ossetia, created the Pankisi gorge problem and are unable to prevent emergence of new trouble spots" will not have enough courage and will "stop halfway."