RIGA (Sputnik) — International military exercises Silver Arrow-2016 involving servicemen from the NATO member states will take place in Latvia on October 17-31, the country's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
"The exercises will be held on October 17-31 and will involve some 500 troops from NATO countries," the ministry said in a statement.
Troops from Lithuania, Estonia, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands will participate in the drills alongside Latvia's forces to practice joint offensive and defensive operations.
Latvia has been a member of NATO since 2004. In May, the country's government adopted the "national defense concept," which stipulates allocating 1.7 percent of the Latvian GDP to the defense budget by 2017. The following year, Riga hopes to allocate 2 percent of its GDP on defense to comply with the NATO requirements.
