NATO Military Exercises to Be Held in Armenia June 16-26

Multi-national military exercises, "Co-operative Best Effort - 2003", will be held as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme from June 16th to 26th of this year in Armenia, a NATO officer told journalists.

Hungary's Lieutenant-Colonel Zoltan Roth, with NATO's southern command, said the exercises would involve about 600 members of 19 countries.

According to Roth, a planning conference held in Yerevan dealt with deadlines for applications from participating countries, and sorted out some technicalities, specifically the time and venue of the exercises.

Such exercises, according to Roth, offer Armenia "a fine opportunity to show itself in multi-manned army units, and see examples of weapons used in other armies".