A company-sized unit of Georgian peacekeeping forces has arrived in Afghanistan to replace their colleagues for the next round of effort in NATO mission in the country, Trend reports citing Agenda.ge.
The unit, from the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Georgian Defence Forces, will replace another company from the 2nd Infantry Brigade to provide base security and force protection in Kabul.
Led by Major Anton Kutateladze, the company is among the first units to complete their mission Readiness Exercise - the final drills before deployment - in Georgia.
This has been made possible by a preparation of necessary infrastructure and training at the Vaziani Training Area outside Tbilisi, with the Ministry of Defence of Georgia unveiling last month GDF units were in training at the site.
Peacekeeping troops from Georgia used to complete their MRE drills at the US Army Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, with the Ministry of Defence of Georgia covering the costs for their training. Around 18,000 Georgian troops underwent the drills at the JMRC over the years.
Now moved to Georgia, the training is run by the Peace Keeping Operations Training Center - a structure operating under the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Centre near Tbilisi - along with the United States Marine Corps.