Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG2) arrives in Batumi, Georgia on 3 November 2017 for a two-day port visit as part of the Group’s deployment in the Black Sea.
During this visit SNMCMG2 comprised the Romanian frigate ROS Regele Ferdinand, the Turkish mine hunter TCG Edremit, the Romanian mine hunter ROS Lt. Lupu Dinescu and the Bulgarian minesweeper BGS Shkval.
Images include arrival at port and welcome ceremony.
00:00 – 00:19
This meeting we had today and the visit I’m conducting in Georgia is going along with a port visit of some NATO ships. That’s a very important signal to stress out the importance of Georgia as one of the strongest partners of NATO.
00:19 – 00:47
SNMCMG2 is a mine countermeasure group, it’s a standing naval force, one of the four standing naval forces of NATO. The capability is mainly to hunt for mines, they can be either in training but there are also a lot of historical ammunition from the previous conflicts, so they are quite very busy at sea, most of the time.
00:47 – 01:34
Well, Georgia is among all the partners that NATO has, is what we call one enhanced partner, among five others, that means it is one of the most important partners of NATO. And why that? Because first it is showing all the signals that it wants to be one day, when the conditions would be met, one NATO member as well as it wants to be one European Union member. So Georgia has made a lot of reforms in defence, in internal affairs, they have made a lot of efforts for interoperability with NATO, and they are really on a very positive track.
Commander Justin Hains (United Kingdom)
Commander, Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group Two.
01:34 – 01:54
So I’ve come here this weekend to Batumi in Georgia for a very very hospitable welcome. Georgia is one of our most important NATO partners and we are working here today or this weekend to get to know each other better and to help them on their journey towards full NATO membership.
01:54 – 02:15
The exercise we are doing with Georgian Coast Guard and Georgian Special Forces tomorrow is very exciting; we are working on a counter-terrorism operation, which will prove Georgia´s capabilities in order to deter or indeed defeat a terrorist threat from the maritime environment.
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