NATO says training centre in Georgia is step to membership

By Margarita Antidze TBILISI (Reuters) - NATO said a new training centre opened in Georgia on Thursday would help the former Soviet republic move closer to membership in the military alliance, drawing instant protests from neighbouring Russia. Georgia has long hoped to join NATO but Moscow, which fought a 2008 war with Tbilisi over two Russia-backed breakaway regions, says that would threaten its security. "The inauguration of the joint training and evaluation centre will be a significant step deepening further our close cooperation," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in the Georgian capital. "All these efforts help Georgia to move closer to your aspiration of NATO membership." Stoltenberg said the centre, opened at a military base outside Tbilisi, was part of a package of measures to boost Georgia's defence capabilities. It will provide theoretical and practical training by NATO personnel for Georgian soldiers and officers as well as for militaries from partner countries. Russia, whose relations with NATO have been at a post-Cold War low over the Ukraine crisis, called it a NATO provocation. "We consider this step a continuation of the alliance's provocative policies as it aims to widen its geo-political influence," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news conference. "Those who continue actively dragging Tbilisi into NATO should realise in full the scale of their responsibility, undoubtedly taking into account the tragic experience in the region in 2008," Zakharova said, referring to the war. Zakharova said Moscow would go on ensuring security of the two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russia recognises as independent states. Last month, Russian troops erected border signs around South Ossetia up to about 1.5 km (one mile) beyond the region's administrative border. Stoltenberg called that "yet another breach of Russia's international commitments" on Thursday. Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili said the new training centre was not aimed against any country. "It will serve regional security, peace and stability in the region," he told reporters. NATO has already agreed in principle that Georgia should one day become a member. But the process has been delayed, including by member countries' reluctance to further provoke Russia. Relations between NATO and Russia have been icy since last year's overthrow of a Kremlin-backed president in Kiev, Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and its support for rebels fighting Kiev troops in east Ukraine. (Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Jan Lopatka)