Defense Ministry: Armenia didn’t specify dates for CSTO maneuvers

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman commented on the report about postponement of CSTO’s Collective Rapid Reaction Force joint military drills in Armenia.

“Armenian side never specified dates for the military exercises. Mid-September was mentioned as the possible time,” Artsrun Hovhannisyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Dwelling on the exercises, Mr. Hovhannisyan noted that the preparatory works are currently in the final stage, with the first groups expected to arrive already on Sept. 3-4.

He further said that Armenian Defense Ministry will specify the number of the participants in the days to come.

CSTO’s Collective Rapid Reaction Force joint military exercises have been shifted from Sept. 3-8 to Sept. 15-19 over technical reasons at the request of the Armenian side.

The maneuvers will bring together military units from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, as well as representatives from International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), UN, OSCE and CIS observers. The number of troops involved totals about 2000 people, CSTO press service reported.