Russia slams NATO military drills in Georgia
Russian Foreign Ministry accused NATO of seeking to destabilize the Caucasus region with upcoming joint exercises in Georgia, where US soldiers will train together with Georgian forces this month, AFP reports.
"We view this consistent 'development' of Georgian territory by NATO soldiers as a provocative move, aiming to deliberately destabilize the military-political situation in the Caucasus region," foreign ministry said in a statement.
The source reminds that the exercise in Georgia, called Noble Partner, will involve about 1,300 participants from US, Britain and Georgia and take place at the Vaziani base outside Tbilisi for two weeks this month, starting on May 11.
It involves the US shipping its M1A2 main battle tanks across the Black Sea to Georgia for the first time this week.