Kyrgyzstan to host Russia-led defence bloc drills

Reuters
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Kyrgyz service members take part in military drills at a firing range in Issyk-Kul Region

(Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan will host a Russia-led security bloc's peacekeeping drills this year instead of Armenia, which last month declined to host the exercise, the bloc's chief of staff said on Tuesday.

Armenia, engaged in a dispute with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, said last month it would be unreasonable for it to host the drills of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the near future.

Anatoly Sidorov, the chief of the CTSO united staff, told a briefing on Tuesday that Kyrgyzstan has volunteered to host the "Indestructible Brotherhood" drills. He provided no further details.

Kyrgyzstan was scheduled to hold a similar CTSO exercise last year, but cancelled it amid a violent border conflict with another bloc member, Tajikistan. The bloc also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Asked about the bloc's potential deployment in Ukraine, Sidorov said he saw no need for that.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Alex Richardson)