This year, 9990 soldiers will take part in the military exercise “Namejs 2021”, Colonel Maris Simsons, the Head of the Operational Planning Department of the Joint Staff of the National Armed Forces (NAF), revealed to journalists today at a press conference.
9375 participants will be from Latvia, but 615 will be Allied soldiers from Poland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Norway and Lithuania.
This year, the military exercises will take place from August 30 to October 3, and they largely coincide with the joint Russian-Belarusian exercise “Zapad 2021”, which will take place from September 10 to September 16 this year.
Defense Minister Artis Pabriks (AP) said that officially about 13,000 soldiers would take part in military exercises in neighboring countries, but several media reports that the number of soldiers involved, taking into account the size of Russian territory – could reach as high as 200,000.
“The military exercises of the neighboring countries coincide with the hybrid war against us on the part of Belarus, and we are already witnessing various military activities in both Belarus and Russia.
Pabriks emphasized that military exercises organized by neighboring countries are not expected this year, as relations with both countries have changed significantly.
Simsons, for his part, emphasized that Latvia was not invited to the “Zapad 2021” training as an observer. Similarly, Belarus and Russia have not shown interest in sending their specialists to observe the military exercise “Namejs 2021”.
It has already been reported that the tasks of the military exercise “Namejs 2021” are to evaluate and improve the NAF command system, strengthen cooperation between units, test and improve logistics issues, air and ground operations integration procedures, as well as implement and evaluate tactical operations in hybrid and conventional conflict.
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