National Army Deploys Contingent to Macedonia

CHISINAU, May 17, 2012 — A National Army contingent will take part in “Cooperative Longbow — Lancer 2012” Exercise held May 17-31, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The National Army deployed 36 servicemen to the exercise, including 10 officers for staff exercise and 26 servicemen for field exercise. The training will be conducted in the Krivolak military training area, located approximately 100km south-east from Skopje. The goal of “Cooperative Longbow — Lancer 2012” exercise is to improve interoperability between NATO and partner countries, within the framework of Partnership for Peace program.

Cooperative Longbow Exercise is designed to train a brigade-level headquarters operating within the framework of a NATO Crisis Response Operation. On the other hand, Cooperative Lancer Exercise is a training exercise aimed to improve capabilities in selected tactical tasks in support of crisis prevention, conflict resolution and post-conflict peace building.

The scenario of the exercises is based on a fictitious United Nations-mandated and NATO-led Crisis Response Operation. Two International Organizations, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) cooperated to create a more realistic scenario. Representatives for these two organizations will be posted in the cell tasked to influx incidences related to their specialties.

“Cooperative Longbow — Lancer 2012” Exercise will bring together about 1000 servicemen from 13 countries. The participating countries are as follows: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

“Cooperative Longbow — Lancer 2012” is a multinational exercise carried out within the Partnership for Peace Program. The National Army joined the exercise in 2003.

The Partnership for Peace is a program launched in 1994 based on the bilateral cooperation between the countries and NATO. The purpose of the Partnership for Peace program is to increase stability and build confidence, diminish threats to peace and build strengthened security relationships.