- 10 Sep 2017 11:37
#14842317
Georgia participates in international NATO exercises. Georgia adapts the economy to the EU. Georgia takes domestic reforms, preparing to enter NATO and the EU. These titles appear in leading international media. This leads to the analysis of the real possibilities of Georgia. If we are talking about European integration and NATO membership, it would be logical to consider the financial situation of the country and its defense.
Speaking about the economy, you can find out information about enormous external debt of Georgia. The expected national debt, spelled out in the draft budget 2017, set the new record for the country. In the draft budget an amount of debt equals to $6 663,3 million, 6% higher than in 2016. According to the last year facts, the national debt was equal to 42.6% of GDP. In the draft budget 2017 it's 42.1%. The size of public debt relative to GDP will again exceed 40%.
In addition, the internal debt is defined at the level of $1402,9 million.
Thus, we can conclude that Georgia's economy is in poor condition. Of course, it is impossible to predict the development of events, similar to Greece, only on this indicator if the EU adopts Georgia as its member. However, the EU economy needs reliable and stable members. And Georgia is not one of them yet.
Concerning defense, it should be noted that Georgia is one of the main partners of NATO, not included in its organization. Georgia provides a large contingent in the peacekeeping and military missions, even larger than some of member countries. It participates in many international exercises (now Georgia is holding the "Agile Spirit-2017"), the training center of NATO is located on its territory. It regularly produces skilled soldiers of NATO countries and their partners.
But there are some nuances.
Firstly, the portal "Global Firepower" this year has assigned 82 to the armed forces of Georgia from the point of view of its defenses. The portal updates the database annually, analyses all received information (with the exception of nuclear weapons) and makes its rank list, which has more than 130 armies of the world now. Based on this analysis, Georgia needs the NATO troops instead of the army. Its army is in bad conditions and requires huge investments.
Secondly, Georgia has some weaknesses in anti-terrorism policy. There are a lot of people from Georgia (especially from the Pankisi Gorge) who have joined the ISIS terrorists, and some of them have become even the leaders of it. For example, one of the most influential field commanders of ISIS is Albar Al Shishani. Another one is Umar Al Shishani, who has become the so-called Minister of defense of ISIS. It's honorable for women from the Pankisi Gorge to marry a terrorist and to go with him to Syria or Iraq. Many residents of the Georgian village of Duisi are directly or circumstantially bound with the terrorists of ISIS. The fact that the Georgian authorities take virtually no action to change the situation makes us think and one gets the impression that they are engaged in the concealment of terrorist activities.
Thirdly, it is impossible to disregard the fact that Georgia is in a conflict state with Russia over territories, which the Georgian party considers as annexed one, and the other party considers as independent republics.
Thereby, it's not clear what the intentions of the EU and NATO are. The Georgian economy is failing, its antiterrorism policy doesn't correlate with the European, and this country has weak armed forces that are not able to perform the tasks of defense. However, the media says that Georgia is doing everything possible to join NATO and the EU. But in Europe many people believe that it looks like Georgia is trying to get into organizations in order to receive the undeserved benefits.
Speaking about the economy, you can find out information about enormous external debt of Georgia. The expected national debt, spelled out in the draft budget 2017, set the new record for the country. In the draft budget an amount of debt equals to $6 663,3 million, 6% higher than in 2016. According to the last year facts, the national debt was equal to 42.6% of GDP. In the draft budget 2017 it's 42.1%. The size of public debt relative to GDP will again exceed 40%.
In addition, the internal debt is defined at the level of $1402,9 million.
Thus, we can conclude that Georgia's economy is in poor condition. Of course, it is impossible to predict the development of events, similar to Greece, only on this indicator if the EU adopts Georgia as its member. However, the EU economy needs reliable and stable members. And Georgia is not one of them yet.
Concerning defense, it should be noted that Georgia is one of the main partners of NATO, not included in its organization. Georgia provides a large contingent in the peacekeeping and military missions, even larger than some of member countries. It participates in many international exercises (now Georgia is holding the "Agile Spirit-2017"), the training center of NATO is located on its territory. It regularly produces skilled soldiers of NATO countries and their partners.
But there are some nuances.
Firstly, the portal "Global Firepower" this year has assigned 82 to the armed forces of Georgia from the point of view of its defenses. The portal updates the database annually, analyses all received information (with the exception of nuclear weapons) and makes its rank list, which has more than 130 armies of the world now. Based on this analysis, Georgia needs the NATO troops instead of the army. Its army is in bad conditions and requires huge investments.
Secondly, Georgia has some weaknesses in anti-terrorism policy. There are a lot of people from Georgia (especially from the Pankisi Gorge) who have joined the ISIS terrorists, and some of them have become even the leaders of it. For example, one of the most influential field commanders of ISIS is Albar Al Shishani. Another one is Umar Al Shishani, who has become the so-called Minister of defense of ISIS. It's honorable for women from the Pankisi Gorge to marry a terrorist and to go with him to Syria or Iraq. Many residents of the Georgian village of Duisi are directly or circumstantially bound with the terrorists of ISIS. The fact that the Georgian authorities take virtually no action to change the situation makes us think and one gets the impression that they are engaged in the concealment of terrorist activities.
Thirdly, it is impossible to disregard the fact that Georgia is in a conflict state with Russia over territories, which the Georgian party considers as annexed one, and the other party considers as independent republics.
Thereby, it's not clear what the intentions of the EU and NATO are. The Georgian economy is failing, its antiterrorism policy doesn't correlate with the European, and this country has weak armed forces that are not able to perform the tasks of defense. However, the media says that Georgia is doing everything possible to join NATO and the EU. But in Europe many people believe that it looks like Georgia is trying to get into organizations in order to receive the undeserved benefits.
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