Baltics: 5,000 Troops In NATO Article 5 Exercise

Baltic News Service
April 22, 2013

Collective defence war games in the Baltic region to involve 5,000 NATO soldiers

Up to 5,000 NATO soldiers will attend Steadfast Jazz 2013, an exercise to be held in the Baltic States and Poland this fall, a NATO officer has said.

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Steadfast Jazz 2013 will be the so-called Article 5 exercise; i.e., a training of a joint NATO response against aggression against any member of the Alliance. The exercise should follow a special scenario to practically implement the defence plans for Poland and the Baltic states.

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“This year, our Baltic partners have offered to host the exercise in that part of the world. So we’re going to see activity in some of the Baltic countries, as well as in Poland. There’s going to be a naval component to the exercise and an air component. So it is going to be encompassing a number of different countries a lot of different territories…,” the NATO official said.

Asked whether it was merely a coincidence that Steadfast Jazz 2013 would take place at the same time as the large-scale strategic exercise Zapad 2013 in Russia and Belarus, he replied that Russia also had to train and prepare its soldiers.

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“In addition I believe that it’s quite likely that Ukraine may be joining us in the exercise,” he noted.