A new radar station to enhance Georgian coast guard's capability to control seacoast and prevent smuggling was opened in Gonio, Adjara autonomous republic on March 1.

The USD 502,000 radar station is the last of four radars funded by the United States.  The other three radars on the Black Sea coast are in Anaklia, close to the Abkhaz administrative border; Supsa in Guria region and Chakvi in Adjara.

"These radar stations are important for the overall security of Georgia," the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi said.

The radar stations were built under the supervision and oversight of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and funded in frames of the Georgia Border Security and Law Enforcement program, through which in last ten years the U.S. donated the Georgian law enforcement agencies goods and services worth of USD 150 million, according to the U.S. embassy.

Georgia's border crossing infrastructure with Russia in Kazbegi district, which reopened on March 1, was modernized last year in frames of this U.S. assistance program.