Armenia to exercise with US troops next week in sign of frustration with Russia
The Armenian Defence Ministry said the purpose of the exercise was to prepare its forces to take part in international peacekeeping missions.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Sept 6 (Reuters) - Armenia said on Wednesday it would host a joint military exercise with the United States next week, a development that Russia said was cause for concern.
The Armenian Defence Ministry said the purpose of the Sept. 11-20 "Eagle Partner 2023" exercise was to prepare its forces to take part in international peacekeeping missions.
He said the Americans - including members of the Kansas National Guard which has a 20-year-old training partnership with Armenia - would be armed with rifles and would not be using heavy weaponry.
Russia has a military base in Armenia and sees itself as the pre-eminent power in the South Caucasus region, which until 1991 was part of the Soviet Union.
It maintains a peacekeeping force in the region to uphold an agreement that ended a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, the second they have fought since the Soviet collapse.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a weekend interview with an Italian newspaper that Russia had failed to protect Armenia against what he called continuing aggression from Azerbaijan.
The original article contains 295 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 40%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
About time, took long enough
