Minsk and Moscow are planning to prepare for the West-2021 exercises, which will be held on the territory of Belarus, the ministry of defense said.
“According to the decision adopted by the presidents of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation in 2009 on holding biennial joint exercises of the regional group of forces, in 2021 it is planned to conduct the next West-2021 exercises, which will be held on the territory of the Republic of Belarus. Currently, the general staffs of the armed forces are undergoing planned preparations for its implementation”, – the Defense Ministry said in a written response to a request from the reporters.
According to the agency, the number of participants and the equipment involved will be announced no later than 42 days before the start of the exercise.
In September 2019, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Belarusian-Russian exercises “Shield of the Union-2019” took place with the participation of 12 thousand troops, up to 950 pieces of equipment were involved in them. Prior to this, joint exercises of the military of the two countries took place in September 2017, they were called “West-2017”, about 12.7 thousand military took part in them.