UNITED STATES PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO GEORGIA’S BORDER FORCES.

Georgia’s Border Protection Department announced yesterday that the United States is assisting, financially and technically, the development of Georgia’s border protection forces. This year, Washington has (1) earmarked a US$20 million credit for those forces’ needs, (2) handed over various types of technical equipment to the land border troops and (3) donated a coastal guard cutter, with a second cutter to follow shortly. A U.S. officer has been assigned as adviser to Georgia’s border protection forces.

In recent days, Georgian land troops and the coastal guard held an exercise around Poti, coinciding with the visit of the U.S. Sixth Fleet’s flagship in that port. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and the Fleet’s commander, Vice-Admiral Daniel Murphy, met and described the visit as a “historic event” which “confirms the Black Sea’s significance in global economic and political processes” (Russian agencies, September 17).

NIAZOV PURGES HIS GENERALS.