Israel participates in its first NATO field exercise in 6 years

For the first time in more than six years, Israel was allowed to participate in a NATO exercise this week.

Israel was a full participant in the wide-scale drill held in Montenegro to evaluate the readiness and capabilities of NATO to face natural disasters.

On October 16, 20 Serbians including former ranking police officers were arrested in Montenegro. It was the day the tiny Balkan state situated on the shores of the Adriatic Sea held its important parliamentarian election. The suspects were accused of an attempted coup d’état and planning the assassination of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

The investigation is still under way, but leaks to the local media suggest that Russia was behind the plot, designed to sabotage the election and stop the Djukanovic government from, in 2017, bringing Montenegro into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as its 29th member state.

This week’s exercises were part of its accession preparation, and Montenegro was selected for the exercise because of a series of floods the country has suffered from in the past.

Montenegro – whose name means “Black Mountain” – was the last state to split from Yugoslavia, declaring independence in 2006.

 

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