YEREVAN, JULY 30, ARMENPRESS. NATO member and partner states are invited to participate with staff officers or units in the August 1 – 15 Noble Partner 2018 military exercises in Georgia, however the exercises aren’t organized by NATO, Armenian defense ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan said on Facebook.

“A group of 4 officers of the Armenian Armed Forces will participate in the military exercises. The Armenian Armed Forces officers will hold various command positions in the military exercises command. Positions concerning tasks undertaken by Armenian units in international peacekeeping and stability missions were chosen.

The exercises will be held jointly by U.S. Army Europe and Georgian Armed Forces in the Vaziani and Norio Training Areas in Georgia. The military exercises are not organized by NATO, member and partner states of NATO are invited to take part with staff officers or units.

The participation of the Armenian Armed Forces representatives at the military exercises comes at the invitation of the Georgian defense ministry.

In 2017, a 40-man field hospital of the Armenian Armed Forces took part in the same exercises. The participation of the field hospital which was acquired and is being prepared by US assistance in 2018 is not possible in the Noble Partner 2018 exercise, because in July 22-27 it was involved in international evaluation exercises in Armenia, and its re-location to another area in a few days is not possible. The format and conditions of participation of the Armenian military representatives have been agreed upon with Georgian colleagues during a conference of planning the military exercises in early June,” he said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan