The US military started a training program for central and south Asian countries Thursday in an eastern US army facility.

The event, dubbed as Exercise Regional Cooperation 2005, is aimed to enhance ties, cooperation and mutual understanding with countries in central Asia, according to a press release issued by the US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), host of the exercises and trainings.

Over 200 officers and soldiers from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and the United States, as well as a number of observers form Turkmenistan are participating in the four-day event, which includes exercise design and planning, modeling and simulation, and analysis, at the USJFCOM's Joint Warfighting Center (JWFC) in Suffolk, Virginia.

Eric Singer, a JWFC exercise planner, said the center's advanced facilities will enable participating nations to cooperate better in security affairs in central and south Asia including anti-terrorism efforts.

Since late 1990s, the United States has been involved in a series of joint military activities with central and south Asian countries including symposiums, seminars, coordination and crisis response exercises, and computer-assisted command post exercises.

A central Asia regional cooperation center sponsored by the United States will also be established this year to strengthen military ties with countries in that part of the world.

The United States regards central Asia as an important region of high strategic value for achieving its global goals and intends to maintain a long-term military presence there.

Source: Xinhua