Georgian army to purchase NATO-standard hardware.

The Georgian Ministry of Defense will purchase NATO-standard hardware to replace some of the current equipment used by the Georgian Defense Forces (GDF), Tamilla Mammadova (Trend) reports.
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U.S. Army Sgt. Frank Sanchez assigned to red platoon, Cobra Coy, 2nd Bn, 8th Cav Rgt, 1st Armd Bde Combat Team, 1st Cav Div, and Georgian soldiers examine the range during a multinational company combined arms live-fire event in support of the Georgia Defense Readiness Program at the Vaziani Training Area in Georgia, Dec. 5, 2018. The GDRP is a joint program in which U.S. Army advises, mentor and train Georgian personnel and commanders in order to improve combat readiness (Picture source: U.S. Army National Guard/Spc. Hannah Tarkelly, 382nd Public Affairs Detachment/1st ABCT, 1st CD)

Minister of Defense of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili said "One of the first issues we are working to solve this year is updating GDF hardware. In particular, we have plans to buy hundreds of new special hardware - NATO-standard, produced by European brands - for replacing current equipment, so that the army can efficiently deal with problems," Garibashvili said while pointing namely at the disinfection needs in the framework of the coronavirus pandemic. As he noted, 1.7 million vehicles disinfected at checkpoints, in addition to 2,5 million citizens screened by military medics to reveal fever as a precautionary measure for identifying possible COVID-19 traces.

Relations between NATO and Georgia date back to 1992, when Georgia joined the North-Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC). The latter was replaced by the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) in 1997 as a forum for discussions between NATO and partners. In 1994, Georgia joined the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program and since 1996, the country has been actively participating in training and exercises within the program.