Agence France-Presse, Georgia and NATO are in the final stages of integrating the ex-Soviet republic’s radar defenses into the Western alliance’s system following a series of alleged incursions by Russian warplanes, officials here said Aug. 23.
”Georgia is in the final stage of joining” the system, known as NATO Air Situation Data Exchange, the defense ministry said in a statement in Tbilisi.
At NATO headquarters in Brussels, spokeswoman Carmen Romero confirmed that “we hope to finalize the technical agreements in the near future.”
NATO ambassadors have highlighted the need to integrate Georgia’s radars into NATO’s tracking system as soon as possible, she said.
Georgian foreign ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani said that talks between Georgia and NATO had been speeded up in the wake of the alleged Russian incursions, including an alleged rocket attack earlier this month.
”The recent incidents will undoubtedly accelerate the inclusion of Georgia into the NATO radar data information-exchange system,” she said.
Georgia claims that Russian warplanes have twice entered its airspace this month and also made a missile attack, which caused no casualties. Moscow denies any involvement in the incidents.
Moscow has been infuriated by Georgia’s preparations to join the Western-led NATO military alliance, seeing the ex-Soviet republic’s bid as part of U.S. encroachment into Russia’s backyard.
Tensions rose sharply this month over repeated accusations from Tbilisi over the alleged violations of its airspace.
In the latest incident, Georgia said Aug. 22 that a Russian plane flew five kilometers (three miles) into its territory on Aug. 21, near the Russian-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia.
The chief of the Russian general staff, Yury Baluyevsky, said Aug. 23 that Georgia was imagining flights.
”It looks like our Georgian colleagues are having a hallucination,” Interfax quoted him as saying.
Georgia also alleges that a Russian plane violated Georgian airspace on August 6 and dropped a 4.8 meter (15.7-foot) Kh-58 anti-radar missile in a field about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Tbilisi.
Georgia says two teams of military experts from Western countries have backed its claims. Russia dismissed those findings as “politically motivated.”
NATO agreed in 2003 to share radar information with Georgia but the country only recently completed upgrading its radar systems to match NATO specifications, Chikovani said.
