US to hold military exercises with Mongolia
Dated 9/8/2006
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The United States is all set to hold peacekeeping military exercises with Chinese neighboors Mongolia, Thailand, Bangladesh and India next week.
The two-week drill, scheduled start on August 11, is the last in a series of joint military exercises U.S. Armed Forces have conducted to help "improve international cooperation in resolving armed conflicts" and "restoring civilian infrastructure", the U.S. State Department said in a press release today.
Participating in the exercises will be about 220 American soldiers, 630 from Mongolia and 242 from India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Fiji and Tonga, the statement said. Observers from China, Japan, Russia, the U.K., France and Canada have been invited, it said.
United States has strengthened ties with Mongolia, a landlocked country of about 2.6 million people between China and Russia, and President George W. Bush last year became the first American head of state to visit the country.
Part of the reason for Bush's one-day stop on Nov. 21 was that Mongolia joined 39 other countries that supported the U.S.- led coalition that ousted former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in March 2003.
