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As the defence minister said, today we are signing into force a programme of special privileges and benefits for officers in our armed services.

This document is unprecedented throughout the former Soviet Union and many other countries. We want to see this endeavour through to the end. As we have been saying from the start, we will make being an officer in the Georgian armed forces an elite profession.

Everyone in our society is proud of our officers. All future generations in your family should be proud of the fact that their father, grandfather or great grandfather served in the Georgian armed forces.

I also would like to see this profession become a family tradition. Your children, who will grow up in these flats that you will soon be given, should consider continuing the legacy begun by their father or mother.

There is a longstanding tradition of great Georgian military officers that dates back to the time of the Crusades, when Georgian officers, soldiers and warriors stunned the whole world with their military victories.

Unfortunately, the majority of these wars were fought to protect the freedom of other countries.

Let us recall that that the best officers of the Russian Empire were Georgians and that many Georgian solders and commanders served in the wars in France at the beginning of the 19th century - they were Mamluks headed by General Bagrationi.

Let us recall the North Caucasian war of the 19th century, where Georgian generals Orbeliani and Chavchavadze scored crucial victories.

Let us also recall that Georgians formed the nucleus of the Polish army when that country was attacked by the Bolsheviks. This happened the same year when Georgia failed to protect its own independence [1921]. Georgians defended Poland and were among that country's generals, colonels and captains.

The father of John Malkhaz Shalikashvili was an outstanding Polish officer, much as he himself was just a short time ago in the USA. General Shalikashvili, our fellow countryman, was the commander of the world's most powerful army. There are countless such examples throughout history, but it is time that we Georgians put this military talent that we have in out blood to use in order to protect, strengthen and develop our own country and preserve its territorial integrity.

I think we have put an end to the sceptics' questions about whether or not we need an army. Of course we need an effective army, because we are in a difficult region and the situation around the world is also becoming more difficult. Of course we need to be able to carry out missions not just in Georgia but also abroad. I know of your success in Iraq, where they say you are the best contingent, some of the best officers and soldiers that have ever been there.

That is why we are implementing this ambitious programme to equip our armed forces and provide each of you with the best living and working conditions.

You have seen what kind of base has been built here - and it has not even been completed yet. I want to thank everyone who worked on building this base at various times - [former Defence Minister] Irakli Okruashvili, [current Deputy Defence Minister] Levan Nikoleishvili, the commander of this base Aleko Osepashvili and [chief of the General Staff] Zaza Gogava. I want to thank the ICBM construction company, which is now finishing these residential buildings which will soon be home to each officer here.

What we are beginning now is a much bigger project. By 26 May of this year we will be finished with initial work on the Gori base, which will be even bigger than this one. We will completely revitalize the material and technical infrastructure of all military bases.

We are introducing compulsory reservist training and at the same time, soldiers in all brigades in the Georgian armed forces will serve on a contract basis.

We will have professional brigades which will be led by you and we will have tens of thousands of well trained reservists who will serve as an auxiliary force to Georgia's professional armed forces.

From this day forth all officers who serve the term set out in their contract will receive free living quarters in Tbilisi and Batumi, places where housing is the least accessible for our citizens. Thanks to our partnership with the leader of the Georgian banking sector, the Bank of Georgia, all officers will receive privileged loans that will allow to them to get a head start on setting up the conditions necessary for raising their families. This is what we are signing into force today.

This is yet another sign of how important it is that our economy develop at a fast pace. It is impossible to have a strong army without a strong economy. The fundamental task of our armed forces is to ensure that Georgia remain stable and calm, because this is the basis of economic development - i.e. the basis for the improvement of your living conditions.

We will make it so that no-one has to worry about their children's future; we will build housing blocs with medical facilities and other institutions necessary for your families to be protected and successful. We are also building sports facilities, like the one I toured here earlier today. And we will build an even larger one in Gori.

I should point out that we need to attract many young people from our nation's institutions of higher education. I want everyone who graduates from university to consider pursuing a career as an officer in the Georgian military.

This career will allow your children to be proud of the fact that their family members served in the Georgian army at this most interesting time and took part in the resolution of historic challenges facing our country.

We need highly qualified people with a knowledge of advanced technology. Several hundred university graduates are already working on improving the technological base of our military installations.

We need to attract young people who know foreign languages because there is a shortage of such people in Georgia. It is very difficult to get ahead in today's world without knowledge of a foreign language, so we want to teach all of the young people in our army to speak a foreign language.

We also want to make sure we keep these people, so from 1 January next year a new rule will come into force under which salaries will be increased according to length of service - 100, 200 or 300, according to how long they have served. We have also decided to greatly increase the salaries of pilots in Georgia's armed forces. In accordance with length of service, these salaries at a certain stage should match those of the president, parliament speaker and the chairman of the Supreme Court. Every qualified pilot should be paid the same as the Georgian president. At the same time, we will of course improve the equipment these pilots fly.

I also want everyone to understand that we need much better training overall. I would especially like to note the very productive work of the new chief of General Staff, who was appointed a few months ago. I am also very satisfied that the defence minister has got to grips with things so well.

He is working day and night in order to improve our technical base and, most importantly, our combat readiness. Everything depends on our motivation, our preparation and our ability to work together. This is the main thing that we must all accomplish together.

Everyone must know that when they deal with us they are not dealing with a mob of cowards, but rather with a well trained, well equipped and most importantly, extremely motivated and brave people who are eager to defend their homeland and secure its future.

Together with you we will see this endeavour through to the end.

It is a privilege and an honour to sign into force this programme which we have been working on for several years and are finally capable of implementing.

We will spare no efforts to make you stronger while you, for your part, will do your utmost to ensure that Georgia is strong. We will do whatever necessary, including giving our own lives, in order to ensure that no-one bring our country to its knees. From now on no-one will be able to break us.

Includes BBC Monitoring material

press Office
of the President of Georgia