ST. PETERSBURG, February 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Nineteen countries, including those from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, have agreed to participate in the World Championship of Tank Biathlon due in Moscow’s suburb of Alabino from July 26 to August 16, commander of the Western Military District’s troops Anatoly Sidorov has told reporters.

The list of participating countries would include China, India, Greece, Italy, Israel, some member-states of the CIS and Latin America, he told a news conference at the St. Petersburg-based Itar-Tass media centre on Friday.

“Our tank will be taken as a basis,” he said, adding that probably, this would be a T-72 tank, but countries wishing to compete on their tanks would get this opportunity.

Five countries — Ukraine, Greece, the Czech Republic, Italy and China, said they would use their own tanks.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian and Chinese tanks would be delivered to the site of the championship by rail, while tanks of the Czech Republic, Italy and Greece would be taken by planes of Russia’s Military Transport Aviation.

The tank biathlon, which is analogous with the Olympic discipline, has been invented by Russian military. The first tank biathlon with participating crews from Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia took place outside Moscow last August.