Armenia was initially listed among 26 countries which the Pentagon said will take part in the Defender 23 exercise designed to “deter those who would threaten the peace of Europe and defend the continent from aggression.”
“Approximately 9,000 U.S. troops and about 17,000 troops from 26 allied and partner nations will participate and portions of the exercise will stretch across 10 different European countries,” Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters late on Wednesday.
The Armenian Defense Ministry did not confirm its participation in the two-month drills that will begin on April 22.
A report on Singh’s announcement posted on the Pentagon’s website was edited on Thursday evening to exclude Armenia from the list. No official explanation was given for that revision. The Armenian government did not comment on it either.
It was thus not clear whether Yerevan had initially agreed to join the war games before deciding to pull out of them.
The Armenian military was reportedly close to sending troops to the U.S.-led drills held in 2021 but opted out of them at the last minute. It said at the time that Armenian soldiers join only those NATO drills that simulate international peacekeeping operations and train military personnel for them.
Armenia’s relations with Russia, its traditional ally, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have deteriorated in recent months due to what Yerevan sees as a lack of support from its allies in the conflict with Azerbaijan.
Earlier this year, the Armenian government cancelled a CSTO military exercise planned in Armenia and refused to appoint a deputy secretary-general of the Russian-led military alliance It also rejected other CSTO member states’ offer to deploy a monitoring mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The unprecedented tensions have called into question Armenia’s continued membership in the CSTO. A senior Russian diplomat said last week that Moscow hopes to end the South Caucasus country’s growing estrangement from its CSTO allies.
Tensions between Russia and NATO have escalated dramatically since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin said recently that the U.S.-led alliance is increasingly “hostile” to Russia and more and more involved in the war in Ukraine.