The Georgian Defense Forces, together with the U.S. European and African Command, have begun preparations for multinational exercise Agile Spirit 2023, which will be held next summer, News-Georgia reports.

It's a joint multinational exercise held every two years under the joint leadership of the Georgian Defense Forces and the U.S. Army in Europe and Africa. Allied and partner forces usually participate in the exercise. These include: Georgia (host nation), Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Italy and Azerbaijan.

The conference to prepare for the exercise will last a week in Georgia. The Georgian and U.S. militaries will set the exact date of the exercise, the area of maneuvers and the number of countries that will participate.

This will be the 11th time Georgia will host Agile Spirit, and from the Georgian side they will be led by the Western Command of the Defense Forces.

Exercise Agile Spirit has been conducted since 2011 and is one of the components of Georgia's cooperation with the United States and NATO. As part of these maneuvers, military personnel are trained for participation in international peacekeeping missions.

The objectives of the exercise Agile Spirit are to maintain and improve the readiness of units and to improve the interoperability of ground forces.

The last exercise Agile Spirit was held in Georgia in July-August 2021. More than 2,500 troops from Azerbaijan, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States were involved. The exercise took place at Senaki, Orfolo and Vaziani training grounds.