- note:
transportation network is in poor condition resulting from ethnic
conflict, criminal activities, and fuel shortages; network lacks
maintenance and repair

Military Georgia

Military branches:
Ground Forces (including National Guard), Air and Air Defense
Forces, Maritime Defense Force

Military manpower - military age and obligation:
18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
conscript service obligation - 18 months (2004)

Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 1,156,302 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 906,400 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 39,570 (2004 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$23 million (FY00)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
0.59% (FY00)

Military - note:
a CIS peacekeeping force of Russian troops is deployed in the
Abkhazia region of Georgia together with a UN military observer
group; a Russian peacekeeping battalion is deployed in South Ossetia

Transnational Issues Georgia

Disputes - international:
about a third of the boundary with Russia remains undelimited, and
none of it demarcated, with several small, strategic segments
remaining in dispute; OSCE observers monitor volatile areas such as
the Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti region and the Argun Gorge in
Abkhazia; Meshkheti Turks scattered throughout the former Soviet
Union seek to return to Georgia; boundary with Armenia remains
undemarcated; ethnic Armenian groups in Javakheti region of Georgia
seek greater autonomy from the Georgian government; Azerbaijan
protests Georgian construction at the Red Bridge crossing and
several other small segments of boundary, which remain unresolved
until delimitation

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 260,000 (displaced from Abkhazia and South Ossetia) (2004)

Illicit drugs:
limited cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for
domestic consumption; used as transshipment point for opiates via
Central Asia to Western Europe and Russia

This page was last updated on 10 February, 2005

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@Germany

Introduction Germany

Background:
As Europe's largest economy and most populous nation, Germany
remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and
defense organiza