Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry has said that Baku will host joint military drills in the days ahead with troops from Turkey and Pakistan -- the first such drills involving the three countries.
The ministry said in a statement that the goal of the so-called Three Brothers-2021 exercise is to improve the combat interoperability of the special forces from the three countries, to "prepare for operations in peacetime and wartime," and to exchange "knowledge and experience."
The nine-day exercise is due to begin on September 12.
Earlier this year, troops from Turkey and Azerbaijan held joint live-fire drills in Baku.
Turkey last year supported efforts by Azerbaijan's military to drive ethnic Armenian forces out territory they'd controlled since the early 1990s in and around Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.