FOCUS News Agency TALLINN. Baltic NATO members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will hold regularly scheduled joint exercises next week, preparing them to host allied forces, the Estonian defence ministry told AFP Monday.
"It's a lot of coordinating and training logistical cooperation but not only," Estonian defence ministry spokesman Peeter Kuimet said.
"We will also train joint actions on crisis management and look at how legislation in Baltic states is prepared for such cases," he added.
The exercises dubbed Baltic Host involve the three Baltic countries and the US European Command and will run from May 31 to June 4.
Civilian officials from police, emergency search and rescue, Baltic sea ports, railways and airports that could be involved in receiving allied forces will also be involved in the exercises, Kuimet added.
Having lost their independence to the Soviet Union during World War II, the three Baltic states re-emerged as sovereign states in 1991 and joined NATO in 2004.
(
http://www.focus-fen.net/index... )
