The United States demanded that Russia are completely withdrawn troops from the border with Georgia

The United States requires Russia to completely withdraw troops from the border with Georgia. The American Minister of Defense Chuck Heigel made such a statement on Sunday in Tbilisi. In Washington, the transcript of his joint press conference with the Georgian colleague Irakli Alasania spread the Pentagon, ITAR-TASS reports.

"The United States continues to urge Russia to completely withdraw its troops from the Georgian border. We welcome the resistance that Georgia shows in this matter," said the head of the Pentagon. According to him, "the actions of the Russian Federation here and in Ukraine are a long -term challenge, which the United States and their allies consider very seriously."

Heigel expressed confidence that "the new status of Georgia as a partner of NATO will help her in promoting membership in the alliance."

According to the Georgian defense department, Heigel and Alasania at a meeting in Tbilisi "agreed on the issues of future cooperation between the two countries" in the military sector. "We discussed the development of close cooperation of the two countries in the defense sector, our joint goal is to further develop and expand this close cooperation," Hageel told reporters after negotiations. According to MO Georgia, the meeting also “discussed issues of regional security and the Ukrainian crisis”.

In turn, Alasania noted that "Georgia is a strategic partner and a reliable US ally." He also stated that he discussed with the head of the Pentagon "issues of increasing defense capacity" of Georgia.

Heigel arrived in the republic on Saturday. It was reported that he will also meet with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and President George Margvelashvili. Heigel and Alasania planned to visit the training center of the Georgian Ministry of Defense in the suburbs of Tbilisi.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby previously informed that "this will be the first visit by Chuck Heigel to Georgia as the Minister of Defense of the United States, but he had already met with his Georgian colleague, as well as the country's prime minister at the beginning of the year in Munich." According to Kirby, Georgia is one of the important partners of the United States. "The Armed Forces of Georgia were a valuable US partner in Iraq and Afghanistan," he added.

Since the late 1990s, the United States has been assisting in the training of military personnel of the Armed Forces of Georgia, the units of which in 2003-2008 participated in a peacekeeping operation in Iraq, since November 2009 have been involved in the mission in Afghanistan. In January 2009, a charter of strategic partnership between Georgia and the United States was signed in Washington, which, in particular, provides for the cooperation of the two countries in the field of defense, economics, and culture.