EUTM Mali: a Georgian solution?
(BRUSSELS2) The new Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania confirmed this this weekend when he came to Brussels for the Brussels Forum. " We have received a proposal from the EU to consider Georgia's cooperation with European structures security and defense et contribute to its missions. And to add: The Georgian government has discussed this dossier. And took a political decision to strengthen its relations with Europe, the European Union, as with the European security and defense structures which are all important for our country. Details will be made public after consultations.”.
This idea of Georgia's participation had been pushed by the High Representative during her visit to Georgia at the end of last year (a framework agreement must be signed to this effect). However, it is not yet certain that the Georgians could provide troops for force protection, even if the experience acquired in Afghanistan alongside the French - both in terms of joint patrol and training - could count.
A recent but confirmed experience
Although recently independent, the country has, in fact, very quickly - and participated in large numbers - in several peacekeeping, stabilization and even a little more operations... The first Georgians deployed in peacekeeping missions in the abroad (after the fall of the USSR) were in the Balkans in 1999: a section/platoon of about 30 soldiers thus participated in KFOR within the Turkish battalion and a company having been integrated into the brigade in Prizren in 2003. The Georgians also took part in the Anglo-American coalition operation in Iraq from 2003, the number even reaching 2000 men who were urgently repatriated in August 2008 when Russian tanks crossed the Georgian border . From 2004, they were also in Afghanistan first with the Germans, then the Lithuanians (medical team). But it is especially from 2009 that they arrived in number. A company thus served until 2012 at the Warehouse camp in Kabul with the French, as well as a unit of trainers (in artillery) in the province of Kandahar. But it is especially in Helmand where they were deployed from 2010 within US troops that they were engaged. They thus lost 17 men in this engagement, mainly by enemy fire or IED (improvised explosive devices).
A reform of the Georgian armed forces on the way
It should be noted that the Minister of Defense must present before the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi this Thursday (March 21) the main lines of the reforms that he intends to promote both in terms of tactical and operational organization (rapid reaction force, constitution of a reserve...), as well as for the organization of the Georgian armed forces (infrastructure, contracting of professionals, fate of the wounded in Afghanistan and of veterans, level of education and training of soldiers, etc.).
Comment: the desire for a European anchorage
Alasania is convinced of the need for European anchorage. When we met him, several years ago (he was then one of the young shoots of the opposition), he had already confirmed it to us. But this feeling is not isolated. " The more often Georgia takes part in such operations, the better said Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tedo Japaridze. At a time when Europe doubts itself, this conviction and this support are welcome... even if they are not absent from internal political interests. Failing to be able to integrate the Atlantic Alliance, the new Georgian government could indeed see in the ESDP (the Common European Security and Defense Policy) an intermediate stage capable of reassuring its own population of the anchoring in the European Union, without risk of angering the suspicious Russian neighbour. The operation in Mali has, indeed, received more than Moscow's consent, not only in the Security Council but also on the ground, since Rosoboronexport (the Russian arms export agency) could deliver - or rather sell - Kalashnikovs to the Malian army: 3000 Kalashnikovs for just over a million dollars (which amounts to equipping the soldiers that the Europeans should train).
