About 350 servicemen from the U.S. Marine Corps’ Black Sea Rotational Force and Georgian soldiers from the 42nd battalion of the fourth brigade are participating in the joint Agile Spirit-2014 drills at the Vaziani training area, the Georgian Ministry of Defense said on June 9.

Agile Spirit exercises has become an annual military exercises supplementing other trainings such as preparing Georgian soldiers by the U.S. Marine Corps for deployment in Afghanistan. First such drills were held in 2011.

“These exercises underline strong cooperation existing between Georgia and the United States in the military sphere, aimed at strengthening Georgia’s defense capabilities and increasing Georgian armed forces’ compatibility with NATO,” Georgian Deputy Defense Minister, Mikheil Darchiashvili, at a ceremony of launching the drills on June 9.

Exercises mainly focus on counter-insurgency and counter improvised explosive device trainings, according to the Georgian MoD, which also said that “active phase” of the drills will be completed on June 19.