Georgia to keep its importance for U.S.

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Georgia will absolutely be included in the agenda of the future Secretary of Defense of the United States.

Ash Carter, a candidate to take the defense office, plans to help Georgia build its security capacity and military interoperability with NATO, if he appointed as the next Secretary of Defense.

In a 42-page document prepared for the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Carter said the U.S. and NATO should reject Russian assertions that Moscow is entitled to a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and can build militaries capable of handling any opponent.

"I reject the notion that Russia should be afforded a sphere of influence," Carter wrote.

If confirmed as a defense chief, he pledged to keep on encouraging the U.S. partner countries, including Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine in terms of security building and military interoperability with NATO.

Carter, who was nominated by President Barack Obama on December 5, 2014, to replace Chuck Hagel as the Secretary of Defense, believes that the U.S. should maintain its leading role in collective defense planning among the NATO allies.

He added that he will urge the ally nations to invest in military capabilities that can impose costs on any opponent. Carter, at the same time, vowed to embolden the large and small NATO allies to invest more money and resources in capabilities that are needed by the alliance.

Few countries in the Euro-Atlantic region expressed as much enthusiasm for NATO as Georgia, despite its non-NATO status. Georgia has recently implemented major defense reforms to prove it can operate effectively alongside the military alliance's forces. NATO has repeatedly welcomed Georgia’s progress in defense transformation. The alliance called on Georgia to share its successful reforms with other nations, and the U.S. expressed its support for Georgia in this mission.

Meanwhile, earlier last November the U.S. and Georgian top officials have held talks over large-scale weapons acquisitions, which was viewed as the U.S. support for Georgia's military modernization.