Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The Azerbaijani, Georgian and Turkish armed forces have started joint military exercises in Georgia.

A computer-assisted command and staff training 'Eternity 2017' is taking place at the NATO-Georgian Joint Training and Evaluation Centre in Krtsanisi province near Tbilisi.

The main purpose of the military exercises is to organize protection of energy and infrastructure projects. The military staff of the three countries will exchange advance experience during the one-week military exercises.

The exercises consider a scenario of operation for protection of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in a crisis situation. BTC pipeline carries oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli field and condensate from Shah Deniz across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The pipe links Sangachal terminal on the shores of the Caspian Sea to Ceyhan marine terminal on the Turkish Mediterranean coast

The exercises will last until September 29.

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey that enjoy the friendly and fruitful relations are actively working to strengthen their trilateral military and defense cooperation in a sustainable manner.

In recent years, the three countries’ relations reached the level of strategic partnership and play an important role in ensuring peace and stability, sustainable development, the welfare of the three nations.

During the trilateral meeting of the countries' defense ministers in May 2016, the parties reiterated the importance of enhancing the combat readiness of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey’s armed forces, trilateral development of military education and training, development of cooperation on cyber security, and further improvement of trilateral exercises on the protection of oil and gas pipelines.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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