Five countries participate in military exercise in Egypt

Special forces from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Greece, and Cyprus launched joint military drills on Sunday at a military base in Western Egypt, Egyptian State Information Service (SIS) reported.

Joint Exercise Hercules 2022, hosted by Egypt, "comes as part of Egypt's keenness to strengthen military relations with sisterly and friendly countries to consolidate the foundations of military cooperation," SIS said.

The exercise aims to unify concepts and includes an exhibition of weapons and equipment used in the training, as well as lectures in the fields of cybersecurity and international humanitarian laws.

The drills will continue for several days at the Mohamed Naguib Military Base and other training areas.

The United States, Jordan, Bahrain and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are also participating in the exercise as observers.

Hercules 2021 was held in Greece last September with the participation of forces from Egypt and the UAE.

"Confronting threats to international freedom of navigation"

Hercules 2022 follows joint naval drills of Greece and Egypt in the Mediterranean earlier this month.

The drills were conducted with the objective of “preparing the navies of Egypt and Greece to work homogeneously as a joint force charged with maintaining maritime security to confront threats to international freedom of navigation and the flow of global trade,” Greek Reporter said.