Ex chief of staff Georgia’s top representative to NATO
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, November 25
The former Chief of General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces, Mayor General Vakhtang Kapanadze, has been appointed as Georgia’s top military representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Kapanadze highlited that his key function at the position would be “ensuring more Georgian involvement in NATO and more NATO involvement in Georgia”.
“I will do my utmost to ensure closer and deeper cooperation between Georgia and NATO. To achieve the goal I will use all my experience, knowledge and connections,” Kapanadze said.
Kapanadze was appointed as Chief of the General Staff in November 2013 and his term expired on November 22 this year.
He held the same command from August 2004 to February 2005. Previously, he had been in charge of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion deployed in Georgia’s eastern South Ossetia region before the 2008 war broke out.
The region is now occupied by Russia.
Kapanadze graduated from the Faculty of Geography and Geology in Tbilisi in 1983.
He then studied at Georgia's Academy of Interior and had been trained at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmish Partenkirhen Germany, then he studied in the National Academy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the U.S. Army War College.
Kapanadze had been replaced in the position by Brigadier General Vladimer Chachibaia, who was the first Georgian General to advise a UN mission, serving in this capacity in Afghanistan in 2015-2016.
Georgia’s Minister of Defence, Levan Izoria, stressed that both Generals were of a high-calibre and they could play a “significant role for strengthening Georgia’s defence capacity and for ensuring the country’s full compliance with NATO standards”.
Izoria stressed that Georgia faced consistent security threats and a high-class Georgian Army would be the best way to counter any dangers.
Izoria stated once again that Georgia-NATO cooperation was aimed towards maintaining peace and stability not targeting or threatening any neighbours.
It is obvious that Georgian statehood since it regained its dependence for the second time in the twentieth century is undermined by its Northern neighbour Russia. In fact the claim of Georgia to join NATO is mainly determined by the fear of tiny Georgia to resist the pressure from the Kremlin aggressive moves. Meanwhile Moscow continues its imperialistic policy against its neighbours. Among the victims of Russia’s hostile moves there are Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and partially Azerbaijan.
