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→Foreign Relations
[[File:Lugar Center.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The Lugar Center Biological Weapons Research Laboratory in Georgia owned and operated by the [[U.S. Department of Defense]].<ref>https://21wire.tv/2018/01/21/wmd-america-inside-the-pentagons-global-bioweapons-industry/</ref>]]
[[File:Lugar Center.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The Lugar Center Biological Weapons Research Laboratory in Georgia owned and operated by the [[U.S. Department of Defense]].<ref>https://21wire.tv/2018/01/21/wmd-america-inside-the-pentagons-global-bioweapons-industry/</ref>]]
Georgia's location between the Black Sea, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey gives it importance as a transport corridor far beyond its size. It is developing as the gateway from the Black Sea to the Caucasus and the Caspian basin. Following Russian bans on imports of Georgian wine, water, and agricultural products, and the severing of transportation links in 2006, Georgia has reached out to other neighbors and to the West to diversify its export markets. It signed a partnership and cooperation agreement with the European Union, and in 2006 signed an action plan under the European Union's European Neighborhood Policy for reforms aimed at building a closer relationship with the EU. Georgia participates in NATO's Partnership for Peace program. In September 2006, Georgia was granted Intensified Dialogue with NATO to formalize discussions on Georgia's membership aspirations. In addition, Georgia has reached out to a number of countries that have expressed interest in investing in the country. China, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine, as well as a number of European Union countries (including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) maintain embassies in Tbilisi. Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development-GUAM.
Georgia's location between the Black Sea, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey gives it importance as a transport corridor far beyond its size. It is developing as the gateway from the Black Sea to the Caucasus and the Caspian basin. Following Russian bans on imports of Georgian wine, water, and agricultural products, and the severing of transportation links in 2006, Georgia has reached out to other neighbors and to the West to diversify its export markets. It signed a partnership and cooperation agreement with the European Union, and in 2006 signed an action plan under the European Union's European Neighborhood Policy for reforms aimed at building a closer relationship with the EU. Georgia participates in NATO's Partnership for Peace program. In September 2006, Georgia was granted Intensified Dialogue with NATO to formalize discussions on Georgia's membership aspirations. In addition, Georgia has reached out to a number of countries that have expressed interest in investing in the country. China, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine, as well as a number of European Union countries (including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) maintain embassies in Tbilisi. Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development-GUAM.
====U.S. biological laboratories====
The regional headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense's biological weapons labs, including those for Ukraine, are located on the Russian border at The Lugar Center, just outside the capital of [[Tbilisi]].<ref>https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/pentagon-biological-weapons-program-never-ended-us-bio-labs-around-the-world/</ref>
In 2007 Georgia ended its policy of having compulsory annual livestock anthrax vaccination. As a result, the morbidity rate of the disease reached its peak in 2013. The same year NATO started human based anthrax vaccine tests at the Lugar Center in Georgia.
In 2007 despite the anthrax outbreak the Georgian government terminated the compulsory vaccination for 7 years, 2013 saw [[NATO]] start human trials on a new anthrax vaccine in Georgia.
[[Anthrax]] is one of the bio agents weaponized by the US Army in the past.<ref>https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB58/RNCBW_USABWP.pdf</ref> Despite the Pentagon’s claims that its program is only defensive, there are facts to the contrary. In 2016 at the Lugar Center American scientists carried out research on the “Genome Sequence of the Soviet/Russian Bacillus anthracis Vaccine Strain 55-VNIIVViM”,<ref>http://genomea.asm.org/content/4/6/e01401-16.full</ref> which was funded by DTRA's Cooperative Biological Engagement Program and administered by Metabiota. In 2017 the DTRA funded further research – Ten Genome Sequences of Human and Livestock Isolates of Bacillus anthracis from the Country of Georgia, which was performed by USAMRU-G at The Lugar Center.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is caused by infection through a tick-borne virus (Nairovirus). The disease was first characterized in Crimea in 1944 and given the name Crimean hemorrhagic fever. It was then later recognized in 1969 as the cause of illness in Congo, thus resulting in the current name of the disease. In 2014 34 people became infected (among them a 4-year old child) with CCHF, 3 of which died.<ref>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26483375</ref> The same year Pentagon biologists studied the virus in Georgia under the DTRA project “Epidemiology of febrile illnesses caused by Dengue viruses and other Arboviruses in Georgia”.<ref>http://www.ncdc.ge/Category/Article/1480</ref> The project included tests on patients with fever symptoms and the collection of ticks, as possible vectors of CCHV for laboratory analysis.
The cause of the CCHF outbreak in Georgia is still unknown. According to the local Veterinary Department report,<ref>https://www.ghsagenda.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/archive---vietnam-zdap-files/day-2/s5-2-georgia-cchf-in-georgia-one-health-02.pdf</ref> only one tick from all of the collected species from the infected villages tested positive for the disease. Despite the claims of the local authorities that the virus was transmitted to humans from animals, all animal blood samples were negative too. The lack of infected ticks and animals is inexplicable given the sharp increase of CCHF human cases in 2014, meaning that the outbreak was not natural and the virus was spread intentionally.
In 2016 another 21 590 ticks were collected for DNA database for future studies at The Lugar Center under the Pentagon project “Assessing the Seroprevalence and Genetic Diversity of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV) and Hantaviruses in Georgia”.<ref>https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=1861649bef259cd12877c74f0c912924&tab=core&_cview=0</ref>
==Economy==
==Economy==