Armenia, US to hold joint military exercises
- 7 July, 08:00
Armenia and the United States will hold joint military drills in the territory of the South Caucasus republic on July 15-24.
The Eagle Partner 2024 exercise will focus on tasks related to peacekeeping missions and such drills with "partner countries" are regular, the ministry said.
The military drills come amid Yerevan’s rapprochement with the West and the deterioration of ties with its historic ally Russia. Despite being a member of the Russian-led military bloc Collective Security Treaty Organization, CSTO, Yerevan’s ties with Moscow have been on a downward spiral as Armenia has blamed Russia of failing to defend it during the Nagorno-Karabakh war with Azerbaijani in 2020. CSTO, the intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan, commits member states to defend one another in case of any attack on their territory. Russia argued that the war of 2020 was not waged in Armenian territory, thus the alliance was not obliged to render military support to Armenia in its war with neighbouring Azerbaijan.
It should be noted that Armenia, despite its allied ties with Russia, does not support the Kremlin's war in Ukraine and has sent humanitarian aid to Kyiv, drawing Russia’s ire.
