Defence Ministry Reveals Reserve System Plan
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, January 26
(TBILISI)--Georgia’s Ministry of Defence revealed the modernization plan for the country’s reserve system.
The proposed changes read that Georgia will have two types of reserve system- active, same as the voluntary reserve, and a mobilization-based reserve service that will be compulsory.
The contract in the case of active reserve will be signed up to five years and the person involved in the service will keep the job and salary he had before being called up.
For its part the active reserve will be divided into three parts:
The reserves of the armed forces will send servicemen into the armed forces whenever necessary;
Territorial reserves will ensure additional military support at various geographic locations;
The special reserve will be tasked to cope with the challenges like cyber threats and etc.
The mobilization-based reserve service will be obligatory.
The role of the compulsory service will be the strengthening of the military forces.
Georgian citizens between the age of 18-60 will be entered into an electronic database and called up for military service whenever necessary.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated that the new system will enable people to serve the state interests without losing their jobs, when it comes to the active reserve system.
Military expert Irakli Aladashvili says that the country was in need of the renewed reserve system for many years.
“The Russia-Georgia 2008 war showed that our reserve system suffered from various drawbacks,” he said.
The expert claims that the Defence Ministry draft is acceptable.
“During any conflict construction, specialists, people well aware of internet technologies are no less important than trained soldiers or the servicemen from the reserve,” the expert said.
Fellow expert Zurab Agladze believes that Georgian state bodies are good at writing conceptions. However, when it came to the enforcement, the situation is different.
The expert says that the Ministry has problems in human resources, allocating funds and formation of the announced reserve system could be difficult.
