"Armenian officers carried out a great deal of work for the preparation of Rescuer 2006 exercise," U.S. Ambassador John Evans said at the ceremony marking the opening of the exercise. He thanked the exercise participants and noted the importance of international cooperation in the field of disaster response and humanitarian assistance. Ambassador Evans stated that the NATO-Armenian cooperation was continuing to strengthen and deepen, and expressed hope that Armenia and NATO's Partnership for Peace program would continue such valuable collaboration in the future.