Macedonia to take part in NATO Crisis Management Exercise

Makfax news agency, Skopje
26 Jan 05

Macedonia will take part in the regular annual NATO Crisis Management
Exercise (CMX 2005), from 26 January to 1 February 2005.

In addition to the 26 NATO nations, nine partner nations have been
involved in the planning and execution of this NATO CMX as Troop
Contributing Nations. This has provided them with an opportunity to
familiarize themselves with crisis management procedures and will
strengthen cooperation between NATO and its partners in the
Political-Military Framework for NATO-led Partnership for Peace (PfP)
operations.

Other countries included in CMX 2005 are Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan,
Finland, Ireland, Croatia, Sweden and Switzerland.

Participants in CMX 2005 will include civil and military staffs in
national capitals, at NATO Headquarters, and in both Strategic
Commands. Representatives from the UN, EU and OSCE will be invited as
observers.

No troops will be deployed in the exercise.

The scenario will depict an UN-mandated and NATO-led crisis response
operation deployment outside the Euro-Atlantic area in order to reduce
tension between two fictitious states. The environment includes the
risk of conventional conflict and an asymmetric dimension such as the
threat of terrorism and the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
against deployed NATO-led forces and in troop contributing nations.

CMX 2005 will last one week, involving a total of 1,250 personnel.