TBILISI. April 8 (Interfax-AVN) - The delayed arrival of U.S. military instructors in Georgia is due to technical reasons, namely that the instructors need to have an elementary knowledge of the Georgian language, President Eduard Shevardnadze said at a press conference in Tbilisi on Monday.
A several-week delay makes no difference, Shevardnadze said. "The American instructors will come and train the Georgian Armed Forces in accordance with modern standards and the tasks of Georgia," he said.
The Georgian Defense Ministry has said that the first group of American instructors will come to Tbilisi in the end of April. About 200 instructors will arrive and train up to 1,500 Georgian servicemen for several months. The servicemen will serve in an army special task force under contract.