BATUMI. Nov 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian border guards and customs officers started an exercise under supervision of U.S. instructors at the Sarpoi checkpoint on the Georgian-Turkish border on Monday, a spokesman for the State Border Guard Department told Interfax.
The U.S. instructors will spend a week teaching Georgian border guards and customs officers how to detect drugs, contraband and terrorists at the checkpoint, the spokesman said.
According to him, the exercise is part of the current U.S.-Georgian program of border protection and legitimacy strengthening.
Sixteen Georgian officers have been trained on the U.S.-Mexican border in 2004 in the program's framework. They were taught by U.S. experts.
State Border Guard Department chief Badri Bitsadze arrived in the village of Sarpoi to attend the opening of the exercise.