The ongoing Eagle Partner joint military exercise of US and Armenian peacekeeping units was planned about two years ago. This was announced by Pavel Muraveiko, First Deputy State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus.

"Let me put it this way: the cycle of planning military exercises in NATO is two years; that is, this exercise was planned or it didn't happen yesterday. It was planned in advance, probably two years ago, or at least a year and a half ago. And our Armenian partners are simply fulfilling their obligations, considering that such an exercise was really planned. We in the [Collective Security Treaty] Organization look at these things calmly. Where it’s possible to better study the enemy, only by interacting with it to some extent. Therefore, it happened to the Armenians, let's say, this year," Muraveiko said in an interview with STV television.

According to him, the fact that the Armenian military did not participate in a stage of the CSTO Indestructible Brotherhood Military Exercises held in Belarus from September 1 to 6 may be due to the fact that the Armenian side "had certain reasons" for this.

"This, let's say, is not critical. Moreover, the exchange of opinions, data, and information regarding these exercises was organized within the framework of the Organization; that is, the Armenian side will receive the results, will study the modern tricks that occurred, and also will receive the video recording of those processed important moments," said the First Deputy State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus.

The Eagle Partner peacekeeping exercise is taking place in Armenia, from September 11 to 20, with the participation of 85 American and 175 Armenian servicemen.