Why Did Armenia Refuse to Participate in NATO exercises in Ukraine

From September 15-26, NATO has organized “Rapid Trident” military exercises in the Ukrainian city of Yavoriv. The only South Caucasus country that has not participated in the exercises is Armenia. The Russian media has been circulating this fact and proposing the hypothesis that the reason is behind Armenia’s political orientation. In particular, Szona.org writes that Armenia was still registered on the list of participating states back in March, but they later changed their decision.

Military exercises have been conducted since 1995, in which Armenia has always participated. Ministry of Defense spokesperson, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, did not give a clear answer to Epress.am’s question regarding not participating. The spokesperson noted that the decision occurred for “whatever technical reasons.” “Our relations with NATO still continue at a high level. We participate in other NATO initiatives, but we didn’t participate in this one for whatever technical reasons,” said Hovhannisyan.

This year’s military exercises consisted of approximately 1,300 troops from 15 countries, of which Georgia and Azerbaijan also participated.