TBILISI. Dec 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgia will intensify cooperation with NATO in 2003, a senior Georgian military official told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
"Next year, the Georgian Armed Forces plan to take part in 240 events under the NATO program Partnership for Peace," said Lieutenant Colonel Irakly Batkuashvili, chief of the Partnership for Peace coordinating staff of the Georgian General Staff.
"Georgia planned to take part in 107 events in the framework of this program in 2002, but managed to participate in only 73 of them due to financial problems," he said.
"If the country really wants to join NATO, funding of events in the framework of the Partnership for Peace program should become a priority," Batkuashvili noted.
The participation in these events in 2003 will cost Georgia GEL1.7m (about USD800,000), and NATO is expected to refund GEL940,000 (USD435,190).
The Rescuer/Medceur multinational exercise in Georgia's Vaziani will be a priority for 2003, Batkuashvili said.
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze made an official application for joining NATO at the NATO summit in Prague on November 21-22. The Georgian National Security Council considered a 34-point plan of accession to NATO on November 29. National Security Council Secretary Tedo Dzhaparidze told reporters the detailed plan covers reforms in the army, law-enforcement agencies and economy.