REPRESENTATIVES OF TWO POLITICAL-MILITARY BLOCKS PARTICIPATE AT A PEACEKEEPING EXERCISE IN MOLDOVA
puls.md
12.09.2006
>From September 11 to 29, a multinational peacekeeping exercise within
the Partnership for Peace Program, "Cooperative Longbow/Lancer 2006",
will take place in Moldova. The exercise will involve approx. 1
housand military men and 50 civilians from 21 countries.
Together with the representatives of 9 NATO member-states, military
men from 3 out of the 6 member-states of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization – Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and also from
the member-states of the Partnership for Peace Program. The United
Arab Emirates, Bosnia, Qatar and Serbia will participate as observers.
The main goal of the exercise is to promote the interoperability
of the military forces from various countries during peacekeeping
operations in crisis situations and humanitarian assistance operations.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded on April
4, 1949. The NATO block involves 26 member-states from Europe and
North America.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was founded on May
15, 1992. The members of the CSTO are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
Moldova is not a member of any political-military block, and its
neutrality status is stipulated in the Constitution. The Republic of
Moldova joined the "Partnership for Peace" Program in March 1994 and
participates in its
activities together with all the CIS countries, Mongolia and some
European states. In 2006, Moldova signed the Individual Action
Plan Moldova – NATO, which does not provide for its joining to the
North-Atlantic block, and the degree of cooperation is inferior to
those stipulated in similar treaties of NATO with Ukraine and Russia.