Mikheil Saakashvili attended the American-Georgian joint military training exercise “Agile Spirit” at the Vaziani military base. Aside from the soldiers of the 4th Infantry Brigade, more than 300 soldiers of the Black Sea 12 Rotational Marine Force are participating in the training. “Agile Spirit” training is one of the components of the US-Georgian military cooperation that is held annually. This program prepares Georgian armed forces for participation in the peacekeeping missions of Afghanistan. Along with the President, the training was attended by the Minister of Defense, American instructors, and the head of Black Sea Rotational Forces Lieutenant Colonel Kouds.

At the end of the training, the Commander in Chief once again drew attention to the importance of the trainings taking place within the scope of “Agile Spirit” and the importance of the experience the Georgian soldiers are gaining while participating in the peacekeeping mission of Afghanistan.

“400 Georgian soldiers have been trained here in these conditions along with the best army and the best unit in the world. This experience will not just serve us now, but it will stay in the Georgian fighting tradition for decades. Each such training exercise has a vital importance for us as well as the fact that several thousand of our soldiers have gone through the Afghanistan school. If a military does not have fighting experience in a region like ours, no matter who says what or no matter how hard it is for us to be there and suffer casualties, it has no value at all. A military has to have fighting experience and some experience of being in a combat situation. We have reached significant progress in this sense over the years. We also have important progress in terms of strengthening military infrastructure as well as producing military technology, for example the armored vehicle “Didgori.” These vehicles were participating in today’s training as well. Aside from strong military capabilities it has an excellent design. The designer is Zviad Tsikoria – by the way, he is one of the designers of the Lamborghini. We can see based on this vehicle’s aesthetics that it’s Georgian…So, we keep developing our armed forces and military capabilities without any fuss, bragging, PR or a large budget” – noted the President of Georgia.

After the end of demonstrating the exercises the American Lieutenant Colonel gave the Commander in Chief of Georgian armed forces the US Marines Shirt and a Cap.

The “Agile Spirit 2012” training exercise began on March 10 and it will continue throughout the week.