On May 18, 39 soldiers of the ARM Peacekeeping Brigade left for Skopje, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to take part in NATO-led military exercises Cooperative Long bow and Cooperative Lancer 2012.

Cooperative Longbow is the command post training phase of the drill that focuses on exercising participants’ skills in staff procedures and command and control of operations, starting from the receipt of military task, its processing at the command post, transmission of tasks to subordinate units and implementation. Cooperative Lancer is a field training exercise which aims to improve capabilities of participants in tactical tasks of peacekeeping missions such as conduct of patrols, escorts for convoys, supervision of checkpoints, cordon and search operations. The participation of Armenian peacekeepers in cooperative exercises both in the framework of CSTO and NATO tends to improve the ARM Armed Forces capabilities in land collective exercises for better enhancement of cooperation with international security organizations and improvement in combat readiness. Armenian peacekeepers will return to Armenia on May 30.