Expert Team Visit Georgia

Expert Team Visit, Tbilisi, Georgia 01-05 February 2016

At the 2014 Wales Summit, NATO adopted a Partnership Interoperability Initiative to ensure that the experience gained by Allies and partners from over a decade of working together in Afghanistan is maintained and further developed. As part of this initiative Georgia has been invited to participate in the Interoperability Platform that will bring Allies together with 24 partners that are active contributors to NATO operations.

In Wales NATO leaders also endorsed the Substantial NATO-Georgia Package (SNGP). The SNGP is a set of measures and initiatives aimed at strengthening Georgia’s defence capabilities and developing closer security cooperation and interoperability with NATO Members. It includes, amongst other things, defence capacity-building; training; exercises; strengthened liaison; and opportunities to develop interoperability with Allied forces. Part of this package is the establishment of a Joint Training and Evaluation Centre to host live and simulated training and certification for military units from Allied and partner countries. NATO exercises open to partners will periodically be conducted in Georgia.

Working within this framework, JFC Brunssum’s Military Partnership Branch conducted an Expert Team Visit (ETV) in Tbilisi, Georgia from 01 to 05 February 2016. The primary focus of this event was to develop transparency and comprehension of the Alliance’s Exercise Planning Process (EPP).

This training package was the first of five ETVs scheduled to be conducted in Georgia this year. Nineteen participants attended
the course. Five of this group will shortly visit JFC Brunssum to participate in a supplementary course designed to enable them to plan exercises in accordance with NATO exercise planning principles.