trade relationship with europe so that some day those parts of georgia may see stronger benefit from tbilisi than what anything being offered by any external neighbor. but you're absolutely right, that it's essential for us to continue to be strong supporters of georgia's aspirations. >> let me actually ask a different question of you, dr. carpenter. you can answer this one as well, if you would like. we have, obsessive in this place about military assistance, military assistance for the ukrainians. many members of the senate have been disappointed at level of military assistance we've provided but it is not a coincidence that ukrainians have become much more effective at rebutting russian advances. not a coincidence this happened during a time notwithstanding a question over the future of javelin missiles we've been transferring pretty important technology and expertise and training resources to the ukrainians. there is a success story to tell here about integration of department of defense and ukrainian military which is part of the story as to why while insufficient the lines have been ab

just recently two weeks ago i was in tbilisi to participate in the noble partner exercise we conduct with georgia where we had about the 650 u.s. troops alongside about 500 georgian troops and about 150 u.k. troops where we had airborne jumps into georgia and we had abrams tanks as well as bradley infantry fighting vehicles on the ground, helping them to develop their self-defense capabilities. over the course of the last 10 years, georgia has contributed mightily to our nato efforts overseas, including especially in afghanistan where up until recently they have been the second largest troop contributor after the united states with 850 troops and in fact they have suffered about 32 casualties if i'm not mistaken, about 282 wounded. they have had major sacrifices there. a lot of our training program over the course of the last decade has been focused on preparing georgian troops for these overseas deployments including iraq and later afghanistan. now, we are starting to position ourselves to devote more attention to training up georgia's troops for their self-defense capabilities. >>

i was in tbilisi to participate in a noble partner exercise we conduct wary we had 650 troops and 150 u. k troops where we had air board jumps into georgia and takes as well as the bradley infantry to develop the capabilities over the course of the last 10 years georgia has contributed to the nato efforts especially in afghanistan up until recently the second-largest contributor after the united states and in fact, they have suffered 32 casualty's and 282 wounded with a major sacrifice and our training program has ben prepared to prepare the troops including iraq and afghanistan but now we're starting to position herself to trade the troops for self-defense. >> do we have permitted troops on the ground? >> we don't plan to but we do plan to increase the tempo of exercises and

just recently two weeks ago, i was in tbilisi to participate in the noble partner exercise that we conduct georgia where we had about 650 u.s. troops alongside about 500 georgian troops and about 150 uk troops where we had airborne jumps into georgia and we had abrams thanks as well as bradley infantry fighting vehicles on the ground, helping them to develop their self-defense capabilities. over the course of the last ten years, georgia has contributed mightily to our nato efforts overseas including especially in afghanistan where up till recently, they have been the second largest troop clinter after the united states with 850 troops and in fact, they have suffered about 32 casualties if i'm not mistaken, about 282 wounded. they have had major sacrifices there and a lot of the our training program over the course of the last decade has been focused on preparing georgian troops for these overseas is deployments including iraq and later afghanistan. now, we are starting to position ourselves to devote more attention to training up georgia's troops for their self-defense capabilities. >> do

to have those benefits so that some day those parts of georgia maisie's stronger benefits from tbilisi from anything that is offered externally the you are right is the central to continue to be strong supporters of churches aspirations. >> we have talked about military assistance for the ukrainians many members of the senate have been disappointed of what we have provided but it is not a coincidence that ukrainians have become much more effective that russian the dances and not a coincidence this has happened during the time over missiles we have been transferring technology and training resources but there is a success story of integration of the department of the defense and ukrainian military as to why all of insufficient we could hold so talk about the success of the partnerships of the ukrainian military. >> yes we have launched with ukraine a substantial training program as an advisory component that is a fairly substantial effort. . .

i know there will be osc parliamentary session coming up in july in tbilisi. it will be very important to raise that issue there should be robust observation of the russian parliamentary election in september. if there are cases of fraud and they should be publicized and talked about and paid attention to because the only thing this regime is frayed of public reaction. we saw how afraid they were of the mass protests in the winter of 2011 and 2012. the whole world should be watching closely as the september election approaches especially as we both mentioned today, election standards and human rights are not an internal affair. >> congressman smith and senator wicker will be leading a delegation to tbilisi in july. i will make sure that the russian election is part of our priorities for that discussion. we will participate with the osce in monitoring. we make sure we report accurately what happens in russia. we are concerned though knowing what happened in the previous election that there could be some personal safety issues associated with participation in th