The military exercises of the countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) “Interaction-2024” started on September 3 in Kyrgyzstan. This is reported by the CSTO press service.

“Command and staff exercise “Interaction – 2024”, a special exercise with the forces and means of intelligence “Search – 2024”, forces and means of logistical support of troops (collective forces) of the CSTO “Echelon-2024” will be held on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic from September 3 to September 15,” - the press service said.

Contingents of the armed forces of the CSTO member states take part in the exercises: Belarus, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and the operational groups of the secretariat and the joint headquarters of the organization. The participation of departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Guard, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the special services of the member countries of the association is also expected.

The Armenian side informed the CSTO that it does not plan to participate in the exercises. The Republic had previously suspended its participation in the organization.

According to Andrei Serdyukov, Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, representatives of Algeria, Egypt, India, Iran, China, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, the UN and SCO secretariats, the executive committee and the CIS anti-terrorism center were invited to the exercises as observers.

In addition, parliamentarians, namely participants in the meeting of the Coordination Meeting of the Chairmen of the Defense and Security Committees of the parliaments of the organization's member states under the Council of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, will be present at the final stage of the exercises.

According to the press service, during the exercises, it is planned to study the current issues of organizing air defense cover for military contingents at the stage of their regrouping and during the operational deployment and interaction of commands with the forces and means of air defense of the armed forces in the preparation and conduct of hostilities.

The objectives of the exercises are:

- improving the mechanisms for making and implementing decisions on the use of forces and means;

- improving the coherence and interoperability of formations in the preparation and conduct of joint operations;

- development and testing of new options for creating a collective force management system. Agreements have also been reached on demonstrating the capabilities of modern weapons and military-technical equipment developed by Russian enterprises of the military-industrial complex.

In total, more than 5,000 personnel and over 900 units of weapons, military and special equipment will be involved in the CSTO exercises.