By empty (8/17/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Around 150 British troops arrived in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for a 10-day training exercise aimed at strengthening the oil-rich republic\'s defences, a British official in the former Soviet republic said. The soldiers of the third battalion of the Princess of Wales\' royal regiment will train with a unit of Kazakh air-mobile infantry to meet several hypothetical threats including military invasion and a raid on oil installations, the British embassy official said. \"It\'s designed to protect the territorial integrity of Kazakhstan against any group,\" the official told AFP.
Around 150 British troops arrived in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for a 10-day training exercise aimed at strengthening the oil-rich republic\'s defences, a British official in the former Soviet republic said. The soldiers of the third battalion of the Princess of Wales\' royal regiment will train with a unit of Kazakh air-mobile infantry to meet several hypothetical threats including military invasion and a raid on oil installations, the British embassy official said. \"It\'s designed to protect the territorial integrity of Kazakhstan against any group,\" the official told AFP. The exercise near the country\'s commercial center Almaty is the second British-Kazakh exercise of its kind. Western countries including the United States have sought to strengthen Kazakhstan\'s military in recent years amid concerns about the vulnerability of Kazakh oil installations, which are mainly located on the Caspian Sea coast. Approximately 30 Kazakh military engineers and support staff are currently deployed as part of the US-led coalition in Iraq. (AFP)