OREANDA-NEWS. The North Atlantic Alliance stated that it had not received an invitation to send observers to the West-2021 military exercises, but would closely follow them, NATO spokesman Oana Lungescu told RIA Novosti.

"The scale of previous similar exercises significantly exceeded those declared. All countries have the right to train their military forces, but they must also comply with their obligations on transparency," the agency's interlocutor said.

She also recalled that according to the Vienna Document of the OSCE, the presence of observers is mandatory for maneuvers with more than 13 thousand participants.

Exercises "West-2021" will be held September 10-16. As the first deputy chief of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Yevgeny Ilyin, explained earlier, in addition to the Russians, they will represent the contingents of nine countries - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Serbia and Sri Lanka.

The observers will be representatives of the armies of China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.