State Partnership Program
The state of Georgia celebrated t he 26 -yea r-a n n iversa r y of ou r pa r t nersh ip w it h t he cou nt r y of Georgia in 2020 and continued to build the four-year relationship with our second state partner, Argentina, which was established in November 2016. The state of Georgia conducted seven i n-person events w it h t he countr y of Georgia prior to DoD restrictions due to COVID-19. The Ga. DoD worked with the Off ice of Defense Cooperation in Tbilisi to conduct 12 virtual engagements with Georgian Defense Forces. A standout event for Georgia was the in-person conduct of Exercise Noble Partner 20. We also selected, trained, and deployed a new bilateral affairs officer. Overall, Georg ia’s st ate represent at ives conducted more than 31 different events, meetings, exercises and bilateral discussions w it h Georg ia (20 event s) a nd Argentina (11 events), continually strengthening our partner nations’ bilateral ties with the United States, despite t he rest r ict ions of t he pandemic. In September, approximately 138 Ga. Nat ional Gu a rd ser v ice members traveled to Tbilisi to take part in Exercise Noble Partner 20, a
multilateral, multinational exercise in the country of Georgia. The Ga. National Guard provided the coexercise director as well as f ield artillery, engineering and exercise support personnel. Georgia was the only state in the U.S. to conduct a training event in Europe this year and reported zero cases of COVID-19 from exercise participants. GeorgianU.S. joint led multi-national training exercise for U.S., Coalit ion a nd par t ner forces continue to focus on readiness and interoperability in direct support of U.S. European Command’s four top lines of effort – Support NATO’s defense of the Eu ro -Atla nt ic a rea a nd cou nter Russian malign inf luence, advance and strengthen strategic relationships and enable U.S. global operations. The State Partnership Program in the country of Georgia focused on several key areas in the Georgian Defense Forces (GDF) including sust ai n ment, procu rement a nd logistics, civil military emergency preparedness, family readiness, cyber security, inspector general operations and reserve component development. New a reas of cooperat ion i n 2020 were person nel retent ion, readiness reporting and junior NCO development. A new engagement area in 2021 will be brigade-level training
36 | Georgia Department of Defense
management. The country of Georgia remains the number. 1 non-NATO and per capita contributor to the Resolute Support mission. The state of Georgia is com m it ted to work i ng w it h Georgian Defense Forces to enhance their readiness and capabilit y to defend their homeland as well as send troops on expeditionary deployments. The partnership with Argentina continues to grow into new areas of cooperation including domain awa reness event s w it h t he Argentinian Air Force and Navy. We conducted v i r t u al t rai n i ng by leveraging mobile technology to conduct a n i n novat ive live interactive Light Medium Tactical Vehicle maintenance event f rom one of our field maintenance shops. The highlight of our par t nership with Argentina this year was the continuation of our humanitarian assist a nce a nd d isaster relief exchanges with members from all branches of the Argentinian armed forces participating in the Patriot South exercise. We continue to plan new events for 2021 and beyond. These events focus on new areas including cyber, officer and NCO professional development and joint pa r t icipat ion i n U.S, Sout her n Command exercises.
