Georgia to benefit from Swiss and Norwegian experience on training reservists

Georgia, Tbilisi, Dec.18 / Trend, N.Kirtskhalia / Georgian Defence Ministry has decided to use the experience of Switzerland and Norway on training reservists for the regular army, Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Alasania said. "In the next few years we want to put our army which currently stands at 37,000 fully on to a professional track. In this regard the importance of reservists increases tenfold," he said. "We need a mobile, efficient reserve," he said. Alasania said that the joint staff will submit a specific plan of army reformation to him on Dec.18. Earlier, the Defence Ministry said that the reserve system has shown to be inefficient and fragmented in August 2008 during the five-day war. "Then reserves were called up for political reasons, President Mikheil Saakashvili's government was going to use reservists against political opponents," a source in the Georgian Defence Ministry said earlier. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az