Army chief of staff Lieut. Gen. Ali Mohammed Al Moumen headed to Egypt Sunday on an official visit which will last for several day, to attend part of Kuwaiti army's drills in the joint military exercise "Bright Star 2001.”
A statement by the army's public relations and moral guidance department was quoted by the Kuwaiti official news agency (KUNA) as saying Sunday that Al Moumen would attend a live-ammunition exercise and marine landing drills.
During his visit, Al Moumen would also discuss Kuwait-Egypt military cooperation with Egyptian officials.
Egypt has offered military cooperation with the six Gulf states, bounded by a joint defense pact.
The commander of Kuwaiti troops in Egypt’s Bright Star drills has said that the biannual war games underway in Alexandria "have nothing to do with international events," referring to the US-led war on Afghanistan.
Troops from Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Spain, the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Greece are taking part in the war games.
Since its inception in 1981, Bright Star's biannual exercises have brought together elite forces from Egypt and several NATO countries in what is termed "the most important simulated war on desert terrain."
Bright Star was interrupted in 1991 when the real thing took place on the borders of Kuwait and Iraq during the second Gulf War – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
