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Joint US-Polish military training has started in Europe in line with COVID-19 prevention
Thousands of US and Polish soldiers began one of the first large-scale military exercises in Europe since the coronavirus pandemic began on Friday, taking steps such as evidence, quarantine and social distance.
Washington was forced to freeze Defender Europe 20 maneuvers slated for May as global quarantine was introduced in both the United States and Poland, where limited training is currently underway, as the pandemic accelerated.
More than 6,000 people will participate in the exercise, which will run until June 19 at the Pamaris Dravskas training camp in the north of the country. Soldiers from both countries, including 4,000 Americans.
According to a statement from the US Army spokesman. USA Beth Clemons sent to the AFP news agency, “All incoming personnel will be screened for COVID-19” and the soldiers must be quarantined before departing or arriving.
“Cloth face masks, additional sanitation and other protective equipment are strictly mandatory” in places where the military cannot maintain a social distance, he added.
“The number of participants has also been reduced to increase the chances of following physical distance,” Clemons explained.
The maneuvers, which would become the largest deployment of US forces on the continent in the past 25 years, were previously prepared to involve 37,000 soldiers. soldiers from 18 NATO countries.
The US-led maneuvers are slated to take place in Germany, Poland, and the Baltics.
The Pentagon wanted to send more than 20,000 to the exercise. soldiers, but the pandemic caused a freeze in the movement of US troops around the world.
The focus of the training that has started should be on the training of Polish aerial paratroopers and the operation of a division-sized Polish and American force across the river.
Poland has long considered the United States to be the primary guarantor of its security in the Western Defense Alliance, NATO.
United States President Donald Trump increased the size of the rotating US contingent in Poland to 5,500 soldiers in response to concerns raised in the region in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine-owned Crimea.
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