A US warship arrived on Thursday in Georgia’s port of Batumi, the US embassy said, sending a message of support to NATO allies amid the spiraling crisis in neighboring Ukraine.
The USS Taylor’s “presence in Georgia reaffirms the United States’ commitment to strengthening ties with NATO allies and partners like Georgia, while working toward mutual goals of promoting peace and stability in the region,” the embassy said in a statement.
The US 6th Fleet frigate arrived in Georgia for three days of exercises with the country’s coastguard in the Black Sea after completing joint live-fire exercises and an anti-submarine warfare scenario along with Romanian ships.
“Allied ships, planes, exercises show vigilance and resolve from the Baltic to the Black Sea. We’ll keep reinforcing NATO security,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Events in neighboring Ukraine’s standoff with Russia have alarmed Tbilisi which fought and lost its own war with Moscow in 2008, and says it is still exposed to a Russian threat.
