TBILISI. Sept 7 (Interfax-AVN) - Four battalions of the Georgian Armed Forces will be trained by instructors that participated in the Pentagon's Train and Equip program in 2002-2004, Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze said on Tuesday.
"In the near future, we are planning to train four battalions by our own instructors using a pattern analogous with the Train and Equip program," Baramidze told reporters.
"We have the potential required for it, I am speaking about the officers trained by Americans. They will act as instructors themselves now," the minister said.
He recalled that four Georgian battalions were trained in the Train and Equip framework. "We are adopting Western standards, we have taken the course towards NATO, and our main objective is to reinforce the army and boost its combat readiness," he noted.
According to Baramidze, the current priority is to complete the manning of the 11th brigade, located in Vaziani not far from Tbilisi. "The next one (to be manned - Interfax-AVN) is the 21st brigade," which is stationed in Kutaisi, the minister concluded.