Georgia will soon send peacekeepers to Afghanistan, representatives of the Georgian General Staff said on Tuesday.
“Georgia is ready to take part in international peacekeeping operations under the NATO aegis, including the one in Afghanistan,” they said. “A decision to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan has been made, yet the size of the [Georgian] contingent will be announced after Georgia reaches the related agreement with NATO partners.”
Georgian parliament members belonging to the ruling party and the opposition supported the decision. “Georgia’s participation in international peacekeeping operations is a step towards integration with NATO. Georgia should take part in operations of the kind but not to the prejudice of national security,” lawmakers said.
Georgia applied for sending peacekeepers to Afghanistan in June 2007. “As the Afghan settlement is a key goal of NATO and the entire world, Georgia offered NATO to send its peacekeepers to Afghanistan,” the Defense Ministry said back then. The proposal was approved at the NATO Bucharest summit in April 2008, and the Defense Ministry said that it would send 400 peacekeepers to Afghanistan by the end of last year.
