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Georgia continues to contribute to international security, despite the threats the country is currently facing. The Georgian government will send a contingent of 100 military personnel by the end of 2009 to join the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. In the near future the Georgian contingent will therefore reach 500. The 3rd Infantry brigade will represent Georgia in the NATO-led multinational operations in Afghanistan. The unit based in the Western Georgian city of Kutaisi, gained operational peacekeeping experience in Iraq during 2006-07 (www.interpressnews.ge, June 27). The government is not expected to create any obstacle to the deployment of...

In the largest opposition demonstration in Georgia since November 2007— WHEN President Mikheil Saakashvili tested his democratic credentials by sending in riot police to quash the protests—tens of thousands of people filled Tbilisi's leafy Rustaveli Avenue last Thursday to demand Saakashvili's resignation. The president retreated to his residence, where he spoke with NEWSWEEK's Anna Nemtsova about the crowds on the street, his difficult relationship with Russia and how the West has largely abandoned him in recent months. Excerpts: Nemtsova: Who wants your resignation? Saakashvili: Mostly unemployed people. We fired about 250,000 people as a result of our reforms. A big...

TBILISI — Georgia and the United States will on Jan. 4 sign a strategic partnership treaty, the Georgian foreign ministry said on Thursday, in a move that risks again provoking Russian wrath against Tbilisi. “Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigol Vashadze and the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will sign a strategic partnership treaty on Jan. 4 in Washington,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Khatuna Iosava said. The accord, similar to a strategic agreement Washington has recently signed with Ukraine, risks raising tensions with Russia, which earlier this year fought a brief war with Georgia over the breakaway region of South...

Sutaberidze and her senior enlisted Soldier case their colors during an end of mission ceremony on Forward Operating Base Delta, Oct. 20, 2008. Photo by Spc. Tiffany Dusterhoft. FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — The remaining 30 soldiers of Georgia’s 1st Infantry Brigade cased their colors during a ceremony at Forward Operating Base Delta, Oct. 20, 2008. “For the time they’ve been here, tasks were completed fully and well,” said Capt. Mzia Sutaberidze, 1st Georgian Bde., logistics officer and officer in charge of the remaining contingency. She said from her position she couldn’t assess the whole brigade, but that she was...

BRUSSELS, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Georgia will keep pledges to field troops in Western peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan and Iraq despite Russia's crushing of its military during the South Ossetia war, a top official said on Wednesday. "We will still keep our commitments to have our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is very important to our country," Georgian national parliament chairman David Bakradze told a news conference in Brussels. "We hope our allies and other friendly countries will help us to recover our infrastructure," he added. Georgia withdrew all of its 2,000 soldiers in Iraq last month after the...

Some political analysts are speculating about Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s motivation for acting so robustly against South Ossetian separatists and doing so while the eyes of the world were focused on the international spectacle in Beijing. The theory floating around is that Georgia moved on the Russia-backed region with the intention of “provoking” an attack, against which Georgia was knowingly unable to defend herself. In this way Georgia hoped to get the sympathetic attention of the West. If such a gambit has been played, it is certainly the most cynical bit of statecraft employed by any present-day democracy. (In any...

As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”

Georgia calls back troops from Iraq amid fighting TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia's president says the country is calling home its troops from Iraq amid heavy fighting in the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Georgia has 2,000 troops serving with the coalition forces in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor after the United States and Britain. But Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told CNN television Friday the troops would return urgently to Georgia after fighting erupted in South Ossetia. "One brigade of Georgian forces is in Iraq and we are calling it home tomorrow," Saakashvili said in the interview. Georgian defense...

The United States has found an unlikely ally in the struggle to block what U.S. commanders contend is Iranian weapons smuggling in this rural agricultural region south and east of Baghdad: soldiers from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. At a time when other countries are pulling troops out, Georgia has more than doubled the level of its forces here, from 850 to 2,000 soldiers, and redeployed them from the Green Zone in the capital to a region along the Iranian border. After a ceremony to mark the formal start of their mission Monday, during which Georgian soldiers knelt and...

Georgia will send more troops in Iraq and it will also boost troops in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said on Sunday his country would send more troops to Iraq. "We intent to increase our participation in Iraq and offer more help to our American and Iraqi colleagues," Saakashvili said. Georgia currently has about 850 troops deployed in Iraq. Georgian president also said the country will send troops to Afghanistan to take part in the NATO operation there. Georgia took part in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan in 2004.

The conventional wisdom is that the U.S. enjoys little international support as we vigorously wage war on terror and deter aggression. But we have fast friends among those who know freedom has a price. In an underreported visit to the White House this week, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili delivered a moving tribute to U.S. efforts to promote and defend freedom. "Your freedom agenda does indeed work," he told President Bush Wednesday. "You can see it in Georgia. We are seeing it in Iraq. And please stay there. Please fight there until the end. "We will stay with you there," Saakashvili...

KRTSANISI, Georgia, March 27, 2006 – A U.S. Marine-led task force marked the completion of training for two Georgian logistics battalions in a ceremony here March 24. Marine Sgt. Michael Szeman evaluates Republic of Georgia soldiers on weapons marksmanship at a range in Krtsanisi, Georgia, Feb. 22. A 53-member U.S. task force, consisting mainly of veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, is training the Georgian soldiers to deploy to Iraq. U.S. European Command's Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program assists the Georgian armed forces sustain those ongoing deployments. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Moor, USMC  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

American officials have been quietly probing whether Georgia, situated just northwest of Iran, will be willing to allow Washington to use its military bases and airfields in the event of a military conflict with Teheran, The Jerusalem Post has been told. The Americans have been putting out feelers, a high-ranking Georgian government foreign affairs official told the Post, in advance of a possible military strike to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability. American reports in recent months, speculating about the possibility of a campaign against Iran because of the failure of diplomatic efforts to thwart a potential nuclear weapons...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 2, 2005. Georgian Ambassador to the United States Levan Mikeladze today announced that the Georgian government, on behalf of the Georgian people, will donate $50,000 to the Red Cross for hurricane disaster relief. "The American people have stood by our side in difficult times, and it is our turn to stand by America," stated Ambassador Mikeladze." I hope this symbolic gesture can in some way help ease the pain of those who are suffering so much. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Americans who have been affected by this catastrophe," he stated. An American Red...

TBILISI (AFP) - A contingent of 558 Georgian troops left for Iraq to relieve fellow soldiers from the South Caucasus country working under the US-led coalition. The troops departed for the six-month deployment after a formal send-off ceremony near Tbilisi. They had received two months of training for the deployment from US and Georgian instructors and would get a further two weeks' training in Kuwait, armed forces chief Levan Nikoleishvili said at the ceremony. This former Soviet republic headed by pro-US President Mikhail Saakashvili sent its first troops to Iraq in August 2003, increasing its presence there to 550 last...

STUTTGART, Germany, June 29, 2005 – Sworn enemies during the Cold War, the Republic of Georgia - part of the former Soviet Union -- and the United States are brothers in arms now, forming friendships and training side by side. Gone are the Cold War days of mistrust and suspicion, replaced by feelings of cooperation and mutual respect, as U.S. forces work to prepare their Georgian counterparts for operations in Iraq and boost regional security in the Caucasus during the Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program. Under U.S. European Command direction, two battalions of Georgian soldiers are training with U.S....

U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated on May 18 that the United States will help Georgia’s democratic development, adding that Georgians “have the will to succeed.” President Bush made the remarks at a dinner honoring members of the International Republican Institute, a non-governmental organization that runs democracy training programs and monitors elections in more than 60 countries. The U.S. President also spoke about his impressions of visiting Georgia on May 9-10. “It was a fantastic honor to represent our country in front of thousands of people, and to stand side-by-side with a true lover of freedom, President Saakashvili,” Bush said....

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - President Bush arrived in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia on Monday on a visit that Georgians hope will notch up the pressure on Russia to respect this young democracy on its doorstep. Georgians want Russia to withdraw two Soviet-era holdover bases it maintains on Georgian territory and to stop giving support to two separatist regions - issues that the U.S.-educated president, Mikhail Saakashvili, is looking to the United States to promote. Saakashvili and his Dutch-born wife, Sandra Roelofs, greeted Bush and first lady Laura Bush at the airport, where Georgian and U.S. flags fluttered under a...

TBILISI (Reuters) - George W. Bush's visit next week to Georgia is being hailed in the ex-Soviet state as a U.S. blessing for revolutionary change in Russia's backyard and encouragement for Tbilisi's feisty stand against the Kremlin. The two-day visit will pay homage to Georgia's 2003 "Rose Revolution" that defied Moscow by installing a pro-Western leadership and created the template for two other ex-Soviet states, Ukraine and Moldova, to move out of Russia's orbit. Britons Vote With War in Iraq on Minds Former CIA Agent: al-Libbi Arrest 'Good Victory' Britons Vote With War in Iraq on Minds It will also...

30.01.2005, 02.16 TBILISI, January 30 (Itar-Tass) - In February, Georgia will send 550 Georgian servicemen to Iraq who will take part in peace-keeping operations there. The additional contingent will join 300 servicemen from Georgia who have been deployed in Iraq since last November, a representative of the Georgian Defense Ministry told Tass. The additional contingent will be airlifted to Iraq by planes of the US Air Force.