Georgian soldiers scan their sectors of fire during exercise Noble Partner at Vaziani Training Area, Georgia, in 2022. The Pentagon has canceled the U.S. Army’s largest exercise in Georgia over concerns that the country is involved in an anti-American misinformation campaign. (Victor Everhart/U.S. Army)
The Pentagon canceled a major U.S. Army exercise that was slated to begin later this month in the country of Georgia, amid accusations that Tbilisi waged an anti-American misinformation campaign.
U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s two-week Noble Partner drill was scheduled to kick off July 25. The exercise, which in previous years involved several thousand troops from numerous countries, was held at a former Soviet air base on the outskirts of Tbilisi, the capital.
“This is an inappropriate time to hold a large-scale military exercise in Georgia,” the Defense Department said in a statement Friday.
The decision came in the wake of a “comprehensive review” of relations that was launched in May in the wake of inflammatory statements by Georgian officials that the U.S. rejected as untrue.
Georgia falsely claimed that the U.S. and other Western entities were attempting to pressure the country to open a second front in the Russia-Ukraine war and that they had participated in two coup attempts against the ruling party, the Pentagon statement said.
Relations with Georgia are now at a low point, with Washington and others in the West accusing the country’s government of moving in an authoritarian direction and closer to Russia.
Thousands of Georgians took to the streets in May to protest the legislature’s passage of a bill that has been criticized as an attempt to stifle dissent. The legislation is modeled on a Russian counterpart dubbed “the foreign agent law.”
The situation marks a sharp turn for Georgia, which for years aspired to NATO membership and more integration with the European Union.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili remains committed to the pro-West orientation and vetoed the controversial legislation, but lawmakers in the ruling Georgian Dream party overrode her veto and got the bill passed.
Before its shift toward Russia on the heels of the downfall of pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, the country held the United States in especially high regard.
In 2008, when former U.S. President George W. Bush pushed for Georgia to become a member of NATO, not all allies were in favor of the idea. But in a show of gratitude for his advocacy, a stretch of highway in Tbilisi was named after him.
And after the country’s brief 2008 war with Russia, the U.S. military maintained especially close ties to the Georgian Defense Force, which played a big role in Afghanistan despite the country’s small population.
