YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The "Thunder-2021" exercises of the CSTO operative response units, which will start on September 24, will be of global significance, regardless of their scale and will be in the focus of external actors because of the exclusive geopolitical importance of Armenia and South Caucasus, Director of the Center for Strategic Trends Studies, military expert Ivan Konovalov told ARMENPRESS, emphasizing that exercises like that, as a rule, contain very serious message.

“Conducting such exercises is, in fact, not of regional, but even global significance for one simple reason: Armenia and the entire South Caucasus region are of exceptional geopolitical importance, and conducting such exercises, as a rule, contain a very serious ‘’message’’. Naturally, such exercises are in the center of attention of various geopolitical players, first of all, the South Caucasus republics, the foreign actors gathered around the South Caucasus, including Russia, Turkey, Iran, the USA and France. So, such exercises, regardless of their scale, are in the center of a lot of attention’’, Ivan Konovalov said, adding that the place of conducting the exercises is also of key importance.

‘’In this case, the exercises will be held in Armenia’’, he said, adding that they are aimed at making clear many countries interested in the region that Russia and Armenia keep control of the situation.  

The "Thunder-2021" exercises of the CSTO operative response units will take place in Armenia from September 24-28.