U.S. MILITARY DELEGATION PREPARES MAJOR JOINT EXERCISE.

The vice-chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, headed a U.S. military delegation to Kazakstan and Uzbekistan from June 4-10 to prepare a joint military exercise. Scheduled to be held in September in those two countries, the exercise will include the Uzbek-Kazak-Kyrgyz joint peacekeeping battalion, CentrasBat, elements of the U.S. 82nd airborne division, and units from several NATO member and aspirant countries, as well as from Ukraine. In Uzbekistan, a group of U.S. officers accompanying Ralston participated in the prescheduled Ultrabalance-97 staff exercise, held from June 6-9 in the Ferghana Valley. (Interfax, June 6-9)

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