On June 13 official Opening Ceremony of the multinational Exercise Amber Hope 2011 will take place in Pabradės Training Area of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The ceremony will be attended by Minister of Defence Rasa Juknevičienė, Chief of Defence of Lithuania Maj Gen Arvydas Pocius, military representatives of foreign states, and other guests.
After the official opening ceremony guests of the event will be able to see the display of weaponry and equipment brought by the participating personnel.
The largest multinational military exercise Lithuania will host this year will take place simultaneously at Pabradės Training Area and Lithuania's territorial waters in the Baltic Sea. Over 2000 military servicemembers and civilians from seven NATO countries - Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Poland, USA and Lithuania, and two NATO partner countries under the Partnership for Peace programme - Finland and Georgia, will take part in the exercise.
Lithuania will be represented by personnel from the Public Security Service under the Ministry of National Defence and the Lithuanian Red Cross Society. Armenia's, Azerbaijan's, Belarus', Kazakhstan's, Moldova's and Ukraine's armed forces and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe are expected to delegate observers.
Amber Hope 2011 will proceed in two phases. During the first phase from June 13 to 18, units will train to complete a spectrum of crisis response operations while the staff element will exercise operational planning.
During the second phase from June 19 to 23, troops will follow an established Exercise scenario based on the experience of Lithuania and other states in completing multinational crisis response operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
The goal of Amber Hope 2011 is to enhance interaction of military units of NATO and Partnership for Peace program countries with a view of jointly conducting crisis response operations and strengthening military cooperation among members of the Alliance.
The Exercise will also serve for enhancing and evaluating readiness of the Lithuanian Armed Forces to deliver Host Nation Support (HNS) to the incoming forces.
Lithuanian Armed Forces have been organizing Amber Hope since 1995. Last series of Amber Hope was held in Klaipėda in 2007.
This year the Exercise is organized and conducted by the Joint Headquarters of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
Note for media: Exercise Opening Ceremony will take place on June 13, Monday, at 10.30 hrs in Pabradės Training Area (near Meškerinės village, Pabradės Eldership, Švenčionių Distr.). Media representatives willing to attend the Opening Ceremony, interview command and participants of the Exercise are invited to register at: cell phone 00370 640 45 380 or e-mail neimontas@gmail.com, before Sunday, June 12, 12.00 hrs.
Media representatives will be able to use military transport for going to Pabradė from Vilnius. Departure is planned on June 13, 9.00 hrs from the Ministry of National Defence (Totorių g. 25/3, Vilnius). The wish to use this opportunity should be made clear upon registration. Number of places is limited.
Foreign media representatives should additionally receive temporary permit (accreditation) from the Public Relations Department of the Ministry National of Defence of the Republic of Lithuania. To receive the permit media representatives should address Public Relations Department before the visit to the exercise area at: + 370 5 2785 208 or email. vis@kam.lt and provide necessary documents for the accreditation. The list of documents and forms of clearance can be found at http://www.kam.lt/en/new.html/
Programme of Opening Ceremony :
10.00 - 10.30 Arrival of guests to Pabradės Training Area, presentation of Amber Hope 2011
10.30 - 11.00 Beginning of Opening Ceremony
11.00 - 11.30 Media opportunity to interview Exercise command and participants
11.30 - 12.00 Weaponry and Equipment Display
Find more information about Exercise Amber Hope 2011:
http://kariuomene.kam.lt/en/ah11.html
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Picture from MoND archive.
