ArmInfo. Armenia will take part in the NATO exercises in Georgia "Noble Partner-2018", Artsrun Hovhannisyan, Press Secretary of the Defense Ministry of Armenia, told ArmInfo. "Four officers of the Armenian Armed Forces will go to Georgia to participate in the exercises of NATO," Hovhannisyan said.
More than 3,000 officers from NATO member countries and partner countries of the North Atlantic Alliance will take part in the annual Noble Partner 2018 exercise, which will be held August 1-15 in Georgia, in particular at the military airdrome and Vaziani training ground and training base in Norio. 1300 Georgian and 1170 American military will take part in this exercise, as well as 500 soldiers from eleven other countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, France, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine and Great Britain. A total of about 140 units of military equipment will be involved in the exercises, including five M1A2 Abrams tanks, Striker armored personnel carriers, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and American Apache attack helicopters. The exercise with the participation of about 3 thousand troops will be held under the motto "Strength in partnership". Noble partner of 2018 is carried out under the leadership of the armed forces of Georgia and the leadership of the European command of the US Army.
Despite the fact that the Georgian Defense Ministry, in its official message, mentioned Armenia as a participating country in exercises 10 days ago, the Armenian side did not officially confirm this information and its participation until today. It is noteworthy that last year Armenia at the last moment refused to take part in the multi-national military exercises of NATO Agile Spirit 2017, held in Georgia, despite the fact that according to the information of the Georgian side, Yerevan initially stated its desire to participate in trainings . After the Armenian military did not come to Georgia to participate in NATO exercises in 2017, the media reported that this decision was made in response to Moscow's pressure. The Armenian Defense Ministry denied the allegations, arguing that Armenia did not apply for participation in the exercises in Georgia.
The Ministry of Defense of Georgia stated that the application was filed and that Tbilisi had learned about the refusal of Armenia to participate in NATO exercises the day before the training began. This step of the Armenian Defense Ministry gave rise to heated discussions, the Armenian expert circles criticized the official Yerevan, expressing opinion that by refusing to participate in the event held under the aegis of NATO, Armenia is harming its international rating.