Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 29/05/2023
The NATO military exercise called “Immediate Response,” which began in Montenegro last week, appears to be a thorn in the side of many anti-NATO elements in our country.
An example of this is an article on the IN4S web portal, which sarcastically presents the “information” that the exercise “Immediate Response 23” has been relocated from Montenegro.
“Swiftly: NATO exercise ‘Immediate Response 23’ relocated from FYRM to FYRM” is the headline on this web portal.
“Immediate Response 23,” or as the old Montenegrins would say, “Swift response 23” – is the name of the military exercise in which the Montenegrin Army is also participating. And it seems that the name of the exercise is quite appropriate, as the Montenegrin Army, due to the inability to conduct planned exercises in Montenegro, has “swiftly” moved to North Macedonia,” among other things, the article states.
IN4S also shared the same claim on its official Facebook page.
This media outlet supports the claim of the exercise being relocated from our country to North Macedonia with the post of the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro, which announced that members of the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Montenegrin Army are located at the Krivolak training ground in the Republic of North Macedonia, where they, as part of the multinational battalion, participate in the “Immediate Response 23” exercise, practicing the execution of 120mm and 82mm mortar firing.
Despite this information, the claim of the exercise being relocated from Montenegro is absolutely false.
Namely, “Immediate Response 23” is part of a large international exercise led by the US called “DefenderEurope23,” in which about 24,000 soldiers from over 20 allied and partner countries carry out operations throughout Europe to enhance their capabilities for a rapid, joint response to security threats.
This is mentioned, among other things, in the press release on the website of the Government of Montenegro.
In the article on the government’s website, which was published on the occasion of the start of the exercise in Montenegro, it is also emphasized that interoperability will be strengthened through the training of land operations, including the execution of complex combat activities in mountain warfare, among other things.
Additionally, it is stated:
“No large-caliber ammunition will be used during the exercise in Montenegro, and Montenegrin soldiers will be sent to the Krivolak training ground in North Macedonia, where artillery firing exercises will be conducted.”
We could read the same in the post mentioned above by the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro on Facebook:
“Montenegrin Army artillery firing exercises are carried out at training grounds in neighboring countries due to the impossibility of conducting them on the territory of Montenegro, which significantly complicates the exercise’s implementation and requires significantly higher costs and financial allocations from the Budget.”
The fact that there will be no live firing exercises conducted in Montenegro as part of this exercise was also confirmed by the commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Montenegrin Army, Lieutenant Colonel Milos Gacevic.
In an interview with Pobjeda, he stated that such exercises will be conducted in the second part of the exercise, which will take place in North Macedonia.
“In the second part of the ‘Immediate Response 23’ exercise, our units will conduct live firing exercises with mortars, and they will use live ammunition, but this will not happen in our country, but in North Macedonia. Unfortunately, we do not have a training ground in Montenegro where we can conduct live-firing exercises or tactical live-firing exercises,” Gacevic said.
Everything mentioned so far clearly leads us to the conclusion that live-firing exercises were not originally planned as part of the portion of the exercise to be held in Montenegro.
Therefore, we rate the claims that the NATO exercise has been relocated from Montenegro to North Macedonia as disinformation.
The “Disinformation” rating is given to a media report that contains a “mix”; of facts and incorrect or half-true content. In such cases, the media may not necessarily be aware of incorrect information being published alongside the true ones. Also, this grade will be given to media reports with false attributions or titles that do not reflect the text in terms of information accuracy.