Near the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is the military base of Vaziani, which housed Soviet military units, legacy of the years when Georgia was a constituent Republic of the Soviet Union until the middle of the year 2001. It was returned to the Georgian Government, which it installed some military units. Exercises combined with the armed forces of the United States, financed by the Pentagon, a couple of weeks before the outbreak of the Russian-Georgian conflict took place precisely in that basis. After the relief in the White House and new efforts by Washington and Moscow to improve understanding between both powers, international tension seemed to have been reduced, although discontent with the Georgian Government has not ceased to manifest itself periodically through a political opposition increasingly active. In these circumstances, NATO has announced that it will not change its plans to develop new military exercises in collaboration with Georgia. The fact that these exercises will focus on the aforementioned Vaziani base has clear connotations related to the war in the past year. The authorities of the country valued as a clear indication that Georgia has great strategic importance for the West.
The Minister of Defense stated that military exercises serve to put Georgia closer to euro-atlanticas structures and improve compliance with Western standards. The representative of Russia in NATO suspected that the Georgian Government will consider the presence of troops and military equipment for NATO in its territory as a renewed Welcome to attack the neighbouring republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In the same vein, Moscow has decided not to participate in the next Council Russia-NATO, planned for May 7, if the maneuvers are not suspended. NATO tries to remove iron to the matter on the grounds that such maneuvers do not involve the use of heavy military equipment and recalling that they were planned prior to the war in the Caucasus last year.