New Delhi, Oct. 22 -- MINSK - Belarus has described next year's Union Shield exercises with Russia as purely defensive, even as military officials approve the concept for the drills. Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said on Thursday that the manoeuvres would be "exclusively defensive in nature."

Khrenin spoke in Minsk as he summed up a meeting of the joint board of the Belarusian and Russian defense ministries. The drills are meant to show that the two countries can defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said, according to the RIA Novosti dispatch supplied to the Eastern Herald.

That description is Minsk's own characterization of the exercise. It does not establish the exercise's size, location, dates or scenarios, and no...