Steadfast Jazz 2013 will be the so-called Article 5 exercise, i.e., a training of a joint NATO response to aggression against any member of the Alliance. The exercise should follow a special scenario to practically implement the defense plans for Poland and the Baltic states.
The NATO official stressed on condition of anonymity that the exercise on the Eastern edge of the Alliance would not equal the exercise to be held by Russia and Belarus near Lithuania in September in terms of the number troops.
"It won't be as big as Zapad 2013, that's for sure. Their exercise is going to be bigger than ours. I'm not exactly sure what we're talking about in terms of numbers. 2,000 on the ground but navy and air force is on top of that. So I think it's around under 5,000. And if you ask the Russians how many are in Zapad 2013 - many more than that," the official told BNS when asked to specify the approximate number of participants of Steadfast Jazz.
He underlined that the NATO exercise is not "aggression" but a usual practice that was somewhat forgotten over the past few years, as NATO focused its resources on the operation in Afghanistan.
"However now that the ISAF mission is pointing down and in fact we're already transitioning a lot of troop and resources out of Afghanistan its once again becoming more important to NATO to make sure our response forces are are ready for what might come next. The idea is not to prepare for a threat from any particular country. Not at all. It's to make sure our responses are ready for a spectrum of engagements," the official told BNS at the Belgium-based Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE).
"And it could be to respond to natural disasters, we saw big earthquake in Iran just a couple of days ago. And it could have been much worse. But also we're preparing for other types of missions throughout spectrum from counter insurgency operations to full scale war should that be required. We certainly don't think that we're facing any kind of threats to that magnitude right now but we have an obligation as a defensive Alliance to make the military professionals that we are prepared for that full spectrum of operations," he said.
"This year, our Baltic partners have offered to host the exercise in that part of the world. So we're gonna see activity in some of the Baltic countries, as well as in Poland. There's going to be a naval component to the exercise and an air component. So its gonna be encompassing a number of different countries a lot of different territories. But nobody should interpret this as a sign of aggression from the side of NATO because it happens to be more to the East as opposed to the other part of the Alliance. They've offered to host it there we've accepted and it really is simple as that," the NATO official said.
Asked whether it was merely a coincidence that Steadfast Jazz 2013 would take place at the same time as the large-scale strategic exercise Zapad 2013 in Russia and Belarus, he replied that Russia also had to train and prepare its soldiers.
"It's not troubling to us in NATO that they are exercising their troops, we find this a normal thing. Through the NATO-Russia council we're being transparent with each other about these maneuvers to keep tensions low and to make sure there is no misunderstanding in these things. And we certainly have plans within NATO to share information about what we're doing an exercise Steadfast Jazz and I believe we're even planning to invite Russian officials to join us for a portion of that exercise to actually see what it is we're doing," the NATO officer noted.
"In addition I believe that it's quite likely that Ukraine may be joining us in the exercise," he noted.
