ISLAMABAD, 13 September 2021 (TON): The opening ceremony of trilateral exercise "Brotherhood" being hosted by Azerbaijan was held at Baku on Sunday, the military said.

According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the exercise will be conducted in the counter-terrorism domain from September 11 to 22, 2021.

It added "special forces from Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey are participating in the subject exercise.”

This is the first such drills among the three brotherly countries. The goal of the exercise is to improve cooperation among the special forces and to share knowledge and experience, according to Azerbaijan's defence ministry.

In February, Pakistan hosted a joint military exercise, titled Ataturk-XI 2021, between Pakistani and Turkish special forces at the Special Service Group Headquarters in Tarbela.

ISPR had said “the three-week-long exercise focused on counter-terrorism operations including cordon and search techniques, built-up area clearance drills with combat aviation support, hostage rescue. Freefall by paratroopers and martial arts were also practised during the training.”

Pakistan and Turkey historically have enjoyed close cooperation but the recent regional developments further brought the two countries closer.

Both countries had also agreed to deepen their defence cooperation and stressed the need for the early implementation of the “Pakistan-Turkey Strategic Economic Framework”.