MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax-AVN) - A large-scale anti- terrorist exercise supervised by the CIS Anti-terrorist Center will take place in Moldova in early summer this year, Colonel General Valery Verchagin, deputy chief of the center, said on Friday.
"A special tactical exercise of the CIS Anti-terrorist Center will be held on the Moldovan territory in early June 2004. Participants in the exercise will test in practice a coordinated model of an operation aimed at combating various forms of terrorism," Verchagin told Interfax-Military News Agency in Moscow.
The exercise will involve special-purpose units from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, etc.
"Coordination of all issues that will be worked on during the exercise is underway on the level of secret service chiefs of CIS nations," Verchagin said.
He stressed that Thursday's terrorist attacks in Spain showed vividly that "terrorist metastasis penetrated deep in Europe, and none of the nations, including CIS members, are insured against international bandits of different spades."
"We can combat this growing evil actively and ensure reliable security of our nations within the CIS only by pooling efforts," Verchagin stressed.
The CIS Anti-terrorist Center was set up on June 21, 2000. Its headquarters is located in the city of Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. The first South-Antiterror exercise took place in Kyrgyzstan in April 2001. The second exercise involving the Collective Rapid- Deployment Forces in Central Asia was held in April 2002. Special- purpose units of the Ukrainian security service and the Russian Federal Security Service held an exercise called Azov-Antiterror in June 2003. The exercise took place under the Anti-terrorist Center's aegis.