On October 12 closing ceremony of international Exercise Maple Arch 2018 took place at Gen Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas Warfare Training Centre in Nemenčinė. Over the two weeks of the exercise roughly 300 troops from 9 countries and the trilateral Lithuanian Grand Duchy Great Hetman Konstantinas Ostrogiškis LITPOLUKRBRIG Brigade rehearsed peacekeeping and stability operations using J-CATS simulation system.
"Our joint efforts to share experience and now-how demonstrates our strong resolve and contribution to the security of our countries. The annually growing number of participants shows the value of this exercise in strengthening leadership skills in our commanders and improving competence of staffs in working in international environment," Chief of the Land Force Staff Col Tomas Masaitis underscored at the closing ceremony.
"Maple Arch 2018 is the main exercise of the year for the LITPOLUKRBRIG Brigade that gives experience to every soldier individually and of teamwork which is very important for operational readiness and execution," Commander of the LITPOLUKRBRIG Brigade Col Dmytro Bratishko said and reminded its slogan "United for Peace!"
Maple Arch 2018 closing ceremony was attended Commander of the Lithuanian Land Force, , , and.
The ceremony was also attended by Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff for operations Brig Gen Raimundas Vaikšnoras, Commander of Canada's 5th Division Brig Gen Derek Macaulay, representative of the General Staff of Poland Brig Gen Andrzej Knap, Ambassador of Poland Urszula Doroszewska, Ambassador of Ukraine Volodymyr Yatsenkivkyi, Chargé d'affaires at the Embassy of Canada Beth Richardson, representatives of other countries taking part in the exercise, other guests.
Exercise Maple Arch 2018 trained soldiers from Montenegro, Canada, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine in operational planning, representatives of Macedonia joined on observer rights, and the entire exercise was conducted with observation and mentoring from the Armed Forces of Canada.
The exercise has been organised by Lithuania, Poland or Ukraine on a rotational basis since 1999.
POC Capt Donatas Suchockis, PAO for the Lithuanian Land Force, +37064045380, donatas.suchockis@mil.lt
Photo credits: Press Information Centre of Exercise Maple Arch 2018
