Armenia doesn’t plan to participate in NATO Defender Europe 21 exercises, says Defense Ministry

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian military doesn’t plan to participate in the NATO Defender Europe-21 exercises, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia told ARMENPRESS.

ARMENPRESS: Will Armenia participate in the NATO Defender Europe 21 exercises?

Defense Ministry: Generally, the Armenian Armed Forces take part in only the kind of NATO or NATO-member organized exercises which are in the nature of maintaining international peace and stability and during which it is possible to train peacekeeping forces or specialized units training for international missions, such as engineering or field hospital.

Organizing and participating in international exercises is a long-lasting process of planning consisting of several stages and deciding participation or non-participation can’t be done in one day, because the structural, functional, logistical, transport and other issues regarding the participation of the units from various countries are highly inter-connected.

The representatives of the Armenian Armed Forces did not participate in the Defender Europe 21 planning process and the Armenian Ministry of Defense does not plan the participation of Armenian Armed Forces units in this exercise. We’ve requested the organizer of the exercises to revise the list of participants posted on their website.”

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan