PSKOV (Sputnik) — The Collective Security Treaty Organization's (CSTO) Interaction-2015 drills are long planned, and not a response to current NATO exercises, the organization's Deputy Secretary General Valery Semerikov said Monday.
"I would not like to see our exercises considered a reaction to the fact that NATO currently carries out exercises in Western countries. Our drills are planned, they were approved last year by defense ministers and security council secretaries," Semerikov told reporters.
NATO's simultaneous multinational airborne operations, named Swift Response 15, are being held across Germany, Italy, Bulgaria and Romania. Over 4,800 troops from 11 countries are participating in the largest NATO exercises in Europe since the end of the Cold War, running until September 13.
