President Saakashvili will spend New Year’s Eve with Georgian troops in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, his press office said on Tuesday.

Saakashvili first traveled to Afghanistan to meet Georgian troops there in February, 2012.

Georgia has almost doubled its contribution to NATO-led operations in Afghanistan in October to 1,571 soldiers. 

Georgia has lost total of eighteen soldiers in Afghanistan since joining ISAF mission in November, 2009, seven of them this year.

Ministry of Defense said last week that a Georgian soldier was missing in Afghanistan since December 19.

Defense Minister, Irakli Alasania, who visited Georgian troops in the Helmand province last month, told journalists in Tbilisi on December 25 that “there is a high probability that missing soldier is alive.”

He also said that deputy chief of staff of the Georgian armed forces, Vakhtang Kapanadze, was now in Afghanistan, involved in ongoing “search and rescue operation”.