President Stevo Pendarovski visited today the Krivolak Army Training Area where he was briefed about the activities of the members of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia and the members of the 15th Engineering Battalion of the US Army, ahead of the start of the major international exercise “Decisive Strike-21”.
President Pendarovski toured the area and the accommodation facilities where activities are planned for the upcoming exercise “Decided Strike-21”, was introduced to the infrastructure improvement plan and the future planned projects aimed at promoting Krivolak in a modern military training center where training operations can be conducted according to all NATO standards. President Pendarovski also inspected the construction activities that are being carried out in order to upgrade and expand the training and exercise capacities of the training ground. The President assessed that the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia, as a NATO member, with the upcoming exercise will have an excellent opportunity to improve interoperability with other NATO member countries.
During the visit, President Pendarovski was presented with the planned activities related to the initial assessment of the declared light infantry battalion, according to NATO CREVAL standards, which is to be held in the course of 2022. President Pendarovski expressed the expectation that the combat capabilities of this battalion will be successfully assessed, in accordance with the highest NATO standards and will be certified as combat compatible for conducting NATO operations.
President Pendarovski was also acquainted with the functioning of the Covid Center within the Krivolak training area, which was established to prevent the spread of Covid-19, before and during the exercise.
The “Decisive Strike-21” exercise will be carried out in the period from 17.05.2021 to 02.06.2021 at the Krivolak Army Training Area. About 1,100 members of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia will participate in the exercise, along with about 300 members of the US Army and about 20 members of the Army of the Hellenic Republic and of the Republic of Bulgaria.
