TBILISI/STAVROPOL. June 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian and Georgian border guards will hold a joint tactical exercise in late June, Colonel Kornely Salia, chief-of-staff of the Georgian Interior Ministry's state border guard department, said on Thursday.
"The exercise will take place at a northern section of the border between our nations, we have yet to determine which one," Salia told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"The conduction of the exercise goes in line with the spirit of cooperation between the two countries' border guard agencies which was documented during the Tbilisi trip of Colonel General Vladimir Pronichev, director of the Russian border guard service, in April," he said.
"At a recent working meeting, Major General Badri Bitsadze, chairman of the Georgian state border guard department, and Lieutenant General Nikolai Lisinsky, head of Russia's North Caucasus regional border guard directorate, discussed a series of issues related to the exercise plan and the forces to be involved in it," Salia stressed.
Major Vladislav Kozlitin, acting chief of the North Caucasus directorate's press service, confirmed that preparations for the exercise are underway.
"During the exercise, our Georgian colleagues and we will practice interaction between border guard units, including to prevent illegal border crossing and bandit gangs' breakthrough attempts," Kozlitin said.