Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 6
By Ilkin Izzet - Trend:
Ships of the Azerbaijani Naval Forces will take part in the drills to be held on the Caspian Sea in 2015, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan told Trend Jan. 6.
They announced that the drills are to be held on the basis of an agreement reached by the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia in September 2014 at the summit of Caspian littoral states in Astrakhan, and a cooperation plan for 2015, signed in Baku in October 2014 between the defense ministers of Azerbaijan and Russia.
Plans for the naval drills include implementation of actions on search, rescue, anti-smuggling, as well as tasks on other humanitarian issues.
Novosti-Kazakhstan news agency reported that the head of the press service of the Southern Military District's press service Colonel Igor Gorbul has announced sailors of the Caspian Flotilla of Russia in 2015 will also participate in the first international trilateral naval exercise of the Caspian littoral states with the participation of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
"In 2015, detachments of ships of the Caspian Flotilla will take part in joint international exercises with naval forces of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan within the framework of the planned activities of international military cooperation between the Caspian littoral states," Gorbul said.
Tripartite joint drills of naval forces of the Caspian states are scheduled for June and July 2015 in the middle of the Caspian Sea.
The Russian Navy will be represented by a detachment of new ships of the Caspian flotilla composed of small artillery and two small missile ships Makhachkala, Grad Svijazhsk and Uglich.
In addition to martial exercises, crews of the ships will conduct exercises on search and rescue support with the conduction of exercises on shipboard damage control and assistance to a vessel in distress.
Edited by CN