MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. The size of the troops that will participate in the upcoming Vostok 2022 strategic drills on Russian territory complies with the 1996 multilateral treaty, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told a briefing for foreign military attaches on Monday.
The troops (forces) will practice joint operations in compliance with the Treaty on Military Confidence-Building Measures in the Border Area signed by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and China on April 26, 1996, the defense official said.
"The maximum number of the participating troops (forces) that fall under the Treaty in the area of its application on the territory of the Russian Federation does not exceed 6,000 servicemen," Fomin said.
The Vostok 2022 strategic command and staff drills will run on September 1-7 under the command of Chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov on the territory of Russia’s Eastern Military District and will be the final stage of the training of the Russian Armed Forces this year.
The coalition forces that will practice joint operations at the Vostok 2022 strategic command and staff drills will include operational groups of military command centers, military contingents and observers from member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other partner states, including Azerbaijan, Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Syria and Tajikistan.
The strategic exercise will bring together over 50,000 troops and more than 5,000 items of armaments and military hardware, in particular, 140 aircraft, 60 combat ships, gunboats and support vessels.