Armenia and the United States will hold joint military exercises. The Eagle Partner 2023 maneuvers will take place from September 11 to 20 at the Zar training center of the peacekeeping brigade of the Armenian Ministry of Defense.

The troops will be tasked to get ready for participation in international peacekeeping missions, according to a statement from the Armenian Defense Ministry published on Wednesday, September 6.

“The exercises involve operations to stabilize relations between the conflicting parties while carrying out peacekeeping tasks,” the statement said. The drills are aimed, among other things, at “sharing best practices in the field of command and control and tactical communication” and at preparing the Armenian unit for planned assessments of the Operational Capabilities Concept of the NATO Partnership for Peace program.

The Armenian Ministry of Defense also noted that units preparing for international peacekeeping missions “regularly participate in similar joint military exercises and trainings in partner countries.”

In January, Armenia refused to host the exercises of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on its territory in 2023. Possible CSTO exercises in Armenia could create a threat in the region, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said back then. “We considered holding the exercises inappropriate, since they would create a threat to the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem. They will come, conduct exercises, and then we will be left alone with this threat,” Pashinyan said, emphasizing that this is why Armenia demands that the CSTO clarify its zone of responsibility in the region.