US and Georgia sign 'defence partnership'

The United States and ex-Soviet Georgia signed a bilateral security agreement today for strengthening the small republic's defences amid heightened fears of Russian aggression.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili inked the Memorandum on Deepening the Defence and Security Relationship between the United States and Georgia at a ceremony in Tbilisi.
Kerry is on a two-day visit to Georgia and Ukraine ahead of a NATO summit in Warsaw to reassure the alliance's eastern friends they will not be abandoned to face Moscow alone.
"Our partnership is resolute and it is unwavering," Kerry said at a press conference.

"The Georgian people have chosen, and want a Euro-Atlantic future and the United States supports that goal."
Pro-Western Tbilisi fought a brief war against Moscow in 2008. Russian troops now occupy the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The tiny Caucasus country has already received military assistance from the US but the State Department said the new memorandum would expand "defence and security cooperation in the areas of defence capacity building, military and security cooperation, and information sharing."
Georgia wants to join NATO but the presence of Russian troops on its territory mean there is little chance of it being accepted into the alliance soon.

Fears of Russian expansionism have risen over Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its support for separatist rebels waging an insurgency in the east of the country.
Constantly alert to what it sees as post-Cold War Western efforts to surround and pressure Russia, the Kremlin firmly opposes NATO expansion on its borders.