BAKU: Azerbaijan, Turkey and Pakistan will hold joint military drills from Sept. 12-20 in Baku, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said on Saturday, the first such drills between the three countries.

The goal of the “Three Brothers – 2021” exercises is to improve cooperation between their special forces and to share knowledge and experience, the ministry said in a statement.

Turkey and Azerbaijan held joint live-fire drills in Baku earlier this year.

Ankara last year backed Azerbaijan‘s effort to drive occupying Armenian forces out of the Upper Karabakh region where pro-Yerevan militants had illegally controlled since the 1990s.