NATO Military Committee chair, staff to visit Georgia

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, will be in Georgia this week, as high-ranking leaders of the alliance continue their official visits to the country.

Peach and his staff will hold a committee meeting during the visit, on the heels of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's meetings with Georgian officials on Monday.

The Ministry of Defence of Georgia said minister Levan Izoria would join the visiting chairman in the meeting held as a sign of NATO support for the country's long-standing partnership with the alliance.

Regional security issues, including political and military circumstances in Black Sea, will be on the agenda for the meeting along with topics concerning Georgia's occupied regions of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia.

The committee staff will be presented information on ongoing defence reforms and collaborative NATO-Georgia projects in the country, including the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package and Georgian troops' participation in alliance's operations and exercises.

The Military Committee will be on visit to the Vaziani Training Area and its Combat Training Centre, in addition to learning about the Georgia Defence Readiness Programme run in partnership with United States.

Further visits will include the staff's trip to the Joint Training and Evaluation Centre and observation of the ongoing NATO-Georgia Exercise, involving hundreds of troops from the alliance's member and partner states between March 18-29.

The Military Committee of NATO is "primary source of military advice to the North Atlantic Council and the Nuclear Planning Group", giving advice on strategic direction and measures for common defence of the organisation.