LITHUANIA CONTINUING COOPERATION WITH SOUTH CAUCASIAN, CIS STATES

Baltic News Service
June 1, 2004

VILNIUS, Jun 01 — Representatives of the Armenian, Azerbaijani,
Bulgarian, Romanian, Slovak, Ukrainian and Uzbek armies are starting
a four-day visit to Lithuania on Tuesday, during which they will get
acquainted with the country’s system of military training.

This is the first visit of the kind, the Defense Ministry has reported.

The guests are scheduled to go to the Kaunas-based Division General
Stasys Rastikis NCO School, Nemencine-based General Adolfas Ramanauskas
Military Advanced Training Centre, Lithuanian Great Hetman Jonusas
Radvila Training Regiment in Rukla, General Jonas Zemaitis Military
Academy of Lithuania in Vilnius.

The military officers will hold a meeting to discuss results of
the visit.

In the framework of the Partnership for Peace Program, in the end
of 2003 Lithuania proposed military officers from South Caucasian,
some Central Asian and CIS countries training at the Lithuanian
Military Academy. Lithuania also suggested sharing experience in such
fields as crisis management, resource planning, military strategies,
security policy.

The training at the Military Academy — intensive 4-month English
language classes arranged according to NATO program and international
courses for captains — has been favored the most.

Since 2002 the Lithuanian Defense Ministry has sponsored education
of Georgian officer in the Baltic Defense College, and from this
year will pay for studies of two Georgian officers, one officer from
Armenia and one from Azerbaijan.