According to the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, interest in the Army Games is growing both in Russia and abroad
MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. Several competitions of the Army International Games (ArMI) may be held in the Arctic in the future. This was announced on Thursday by the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at a briefing for foreign military attaches.
"We plan to discuss the places of next year's ArMI competitions with representatives of interested defense departments during the upcoming competitions. At the same time, we will consider holding separate competitions in the Arctic region," he said.
According to him, interest in the Army Games is growing both in Russia and abroad, which is confirmed by "an almost twofold increase in the number of announced teams compared to last year." "Accordingly, we expect an increase in competition," Gerasimov said.
This year, the program of the games included 34 competitions (including three new ones), and the geography of the countries participating in the organization of competitions has more than doubled, the head of the General Staff said.
"The competitions will be held in 11 states. For the first time, the competitions will be held on the territory of Algeria, Vietnam, Qatar and Serbia," he said.
"The seventh Army Games will be the most massive in terms of the number of participants," Gerasimov said. "The total number of teams exceeds 7 thousand people, more than 1.1 thousand units of weapons and military equipment are involved." For the first time, military personnel from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malaysia, Eswatini and Cyprus will take part in the games.
The closing ceremony of the games and the presentation of the main cup to the country that wins the games will be held on September 4 after the final of the "Tank Biathlon", the general added.
Ready to open
Everything is ready for the opening of two major international events - the military-technical forum "Army-2021" and the Army Games, the Chief of the General Staff said.
"The preparations for the opening of the events are almost complete today," he said.
Since last year, the games and the forum have been held simultaneously, which, according to Gerasimov, also makes it possible to optimize anti-weed measures.
"This format allows participants to increase the efficiency of their work, and guests can see almost the entire spectacular demonstration program. In addition, this makes it possible to optimize efforts to implement a set of measures aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus infection," the Chief of the General Staff said.
