U.S., NATO, Boosting Military Cooperation With Georgia
The United States and its European allies have made a number of recent moves to bolster military cooperation with Georgia as tension continues to fester between Russia and the West.
From July 9-11, the head of U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), General Paul Selva, visited Georgia and held discussions with officials including the president, prime minister and defense minister. The substance of the talks appeared to focus heavily on issues of military transit, as one of several routes that the United States and NATO use to get equipment in and out of landlocked Afghanistan is through Georgia. It’s also likely that General Selva discussed the administration’s new “European Reassurance Initiative”, where an estimated $35 milllion would go to Georgia to help build partner capacity, according to Stars and Stripes.
At the moment, the vast majority of equipment going to Afghanistan is shipped via Pakistan, the closest route to the sea. But rocky relations with Pakistan led the United States to set up the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) through the former Soviet Union as a strategic hedge in case the Pakistan route becomes unavailable. USTRANSCOM officials say that the route, via Russia, is still working smoothly in spite of increased tension with Putin, but Selva's visit may indicate a desire by the Pentagon to re-route equipment via Azerbaijan and Georgia.
But Georgia's ability to accommodate more U.S. military traffic has been hampered by delays to a new rail line that it, Azerbaijan and Turkey are building, known as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. Officials from Azerbaijan and Turkey have blamed Georgia for the delays, which have pushed back the projected date of inaugurating the railroad to the end of 2015.
In Tbilisi, Selva discussed the "modernization plan of Georgian railway, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and Anaklia port projects. As the head of the United States Transportation Command, General Paul Selva said during the meeting, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway gives the new opportunities for shipment by railway," according to a release from Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili's office.
In late June, the NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said that NATO is working out a “substantial package” of cooperation measures with Georgia. While some in Georgia were disappointed that they would not receive the coveted “Membership Action Plan” at this year's NATO summit, which would be the clearest route to full membership, that option was never very likely. But NATO officials emphasized that they would offer “more support to bring Georgia closer to NATO.
The details, however, were not yet clear, Rasmussen indicated: “We will work on that package in close collaboration with Georgia from now until the summit. So I regret to say that I'm not able to outline the specific elements of that package at this stage. It will be elaborated on...from now until the summit.”
During a visit by NATO Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai to Tbilisi on July 9, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania said that “the package consists of several elements – the first one is that Georgia will be better protected after the Summit and these proposals will guarantee more security for us and the most important of all, this will be another step forward to NATO membership. All our efforts are directed to achieve our goal of NATO membership in the nearest future. This and all other discussions with government officials will be crucial before the decisions are taken in NATO in the coming days.”
Reuters reported that among the measures NATO was considering for Georgia included “closer political cooperation, training the Georgian armed forces and strengthening NATO's liaison office in Georgia.” And Georgian website Civil.ge reported that that was only part of the deal: “Georgian officials confirmed that such package is being developed, but also said that reported elements are only part of the broader proposal, which is still being discussed.”
While the news about greater security cooperation between the West and Georgia has elicited strong reactions in Russia, much of new security assistance to Georgia is still in the works. As more details about the European Reassurance Initiative and the NATO-Georgia cooperation emerge, the U.S. will have to strike a delicate balance between reassuring Georgia and making sure that Russia doesn't feel so threatened that it reacts aggressively.