Georgia to Host NATO Drills in Disaster Preparedness
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 14 Sep.'12 / 16:05

Georgia will host a week-long NATO disaster response and consequence management exercises later this month.

Over 1,000 members of civilian and military teams from twenty four NATO and partner countries will participate in the field exercises, planned for September 22-28 near Tbilisi, which are organized by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC).

“Georgia - 2012 will allow NATO and partner countries to practice disaster response mechanisms and capabilities and to enhance co-operation in emergency situations,” according to EADRCC, which is NATO’s civil emergency response mechanism. “The scenario for the exercise will be a severe earthquake affecting the vicinity of Tbilisi, resulting in high numbers of victims and widespread damage to critical infrastructure, including chemical spills and a radiological incident.”

It will be fourteenth such field exercise organized by EADRCC. Armenia hosted similar drills in 2012.

Officials from NATO’s Civil Protection Group and EADRCC visited Georgia in June, who also met with representatives of the EU Observer Mission in Georgia (EUMM) to brief them about the planned exercises.  EUMM said at the time that it was informed in details about the planned exercises “so that there were no misunderstandings about the nature of this event.”

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