A four-day joint military exercise of Tajik and Russian military personnel was launched in Tajikistan yesterday.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation says the exercise, involving military subunits of the Tajikistan Armed Forces and the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan, is being conducted at the Harbnaidon training ground in Tajikistan’s Khatlon province.
The main purpose of the exercise, which involves military mountain subunits, tank, artillery and reconnaissance subunits as well as UAV and mobile groups, chemical protection specialists, Mi-24 attack helicopters and Mi-8MTV5-1 transport and combat helicopters, is to rehearse coordination and interaction in autonomous combat missions in mountain areas.
Besides, Russian and Tajik military personnel will also carry out work “on managing units while covering the state border and destroying the saboteurs who broke through,” the Russian Defense ministry press center says.
The Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan is subordinate to the Central Military District. It is Russia's largest non-naval military facility outside the country.
It was officially opened in Tajikistan in 2004 under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad.
A total of some 7,000 Russian troops are now stationed at two military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe and Bokhtar (formerly Qurghon Teppa), some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe.
