U.S. General Visits Armenia, Meets With Defense Officials

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)””A U.S. general overseeing the Kansas National Guard is visiting Armenia for a third time in less than a year shortly after his troops trained more Armenian soldiers as part of growing U.S.-Armenian defense cooperation.

Major General Lee Tafanelli, the Kansas adjutant general, met with Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian on Wednesday. He reportedly pledged to continue training programs for Armenian military personnel mostly serving in a special brigade that contributes troops to multinational peacekeeping missions around the world.

The Armenian Peacekeeping Brigade has received considerable technical assistance from U.S. Army Europe and the Kansas National Guard. In particular, U.S. instructors have been training the brigade’s medical personnel and demining experts. The Armenian military inaugurated a U.S.-sponsored paramedic school in October last year.

Tafanelli’s department reported earlier this week that more soldiers of the Peacekeeping Brigade have undergone training at a Kansas National Guard facility in Salina, a small city in the U.S. state. “The Guardsmen and Armenian soldiers conducted training exercises in the Humvee egress rollover trainer and in the virtual convoy simulator,”