US Abrams tanks to arrive in Latvia for NATO exercises
US Abrams tanks will arrive in Riga on Saturday to participate in the Saber Strike 2016 exercises, Evropeyskaya Pravda reported with reference to Delfi.
Residents of Riga have been notified that a column of armored vehicles, including Abrams tanks, will be transported from the Port of Riga to the exercise cite in Ādaži.
The Commander of the National Armed Forces of Latvia, Raimonds Graube, stressed that the exercises are not aimed at provoking Russia, as the NATO drills are on a much smaller scale than Russian exercises on the other side of the border.
"The exercises organized by Russia involved 30-50 thousand soldiers. No one here is going to deploy missiles… despite the fact that [Russian] Iskander missiles are located near our borders. In Latvia, there is a helicopter base, while on an island 26 kilometers from the Latvian border are 70-80 [Russian] helicopters. All this proves that NATO does not compete in the escalation to see who will place greater military power on the borders," Graube said.
Saber Strike 2016 will be held in the Baltic States from June 11th-21st. Thousands of NATO troops from the US, the UK, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Portugal, Poland, and other member states will participate in the annual joint sea and land exercises under US leadership.