By Bosphorus News Defense Desk
Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Georgia have completed the planning phase for Eternity-2026, a trilateral command-and-staff exercise that will rehearse responses to threats against economic and energy infrastructure, transport corridors and other international projects.
The final planning conference ended on August 27 with the scenario, tactical tasks and logistical arrangements agreed and a final protocol signed. Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said preparations had been completed for the exercise, which will be held in Azerbaijan in November.
No exact date or Turkish force composition has been announced.
Railway and Strategic-Site Officials Join the Exercise
Military personnel from Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Georgia will be joined by representatives of Azerbaijan Railways and Azerbaijan's State Agency for Protection of Strategic Facilities.
Their participation was confirmed during the main planning conference in Baku on July 16. Planners also discussed the composition of the joint headquarters and tactical episodes to be carried out in the field. The scenario covers tactical-level protection and defense of strategic facilities and lines of communication running through the participating countries.
The Azerbaijani institutions bring the operators and guardians of civilian infrastructure directly into the exercise.
The State Agency for Protection of Strategic Facilities is responsible for designated strategic sites. On June 27, it convened government security bodies, SOCAR and BP Azerbaijan for a separate meeting devoted to the security of export oil and gas pipelines. The meeting covered duties under Azerbaijan's national action plan for strengthening protection of export pipeline facilities.
Azerbaijan Railways brings the transport network into the same structure.
The July and August Eternity-2026 announcements do not name an individual pipeline, railway or trade route. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, TANAP and Middle Corridor therefore cannot be presented as declared targets of the November exercise.
Earlier Eternity Drills Named BTC and BTK
Pipelines and railways have been explicit training subjects in earlier editions of Eternity.
Türkiye's National Defense Ministry says the exercise has been conducted annually on a rotating basis since 2000. For Eternity-2025 in Kars, the ministry identified protection of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway as part of the multinational peace-support scenario.
The 2022 exercise went further in describing the threat. Its scenario included responding to a possible attack or sabotage against BTC and BTK.
Azerbaijan's 2026 description uses broader language, covering economic and energy infrastructure, transport corridors and international projects without identifying individual assets. The earlier Turkish records show that the Eternity series has repeatedly trained around the pipelines and rail links connecting the three countries.
The military relationship also runs through other formats. During Caucasian Eagle-2025 in Ankara, special forces from Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Georgia trained with aviation and rocket-artillery elements on joint tasks and interoperability.
Eternity has a different recurring focus: the infrastructure and routes crossing the three states.
Istanbul Talks Put Transport and Energy Back on the Trilateral Agenda
The November exercise follows a June 8 meeting in Istanbul where the three governments placed transport, energy and connectivity projects near the center of their political agenda.
The Istanbul Declaration signed by the three foreign ministers named BTC and the Southern Gas Corridor as contributors to regional and European energy security. It described the BTK railway as a key element of the Trans-Caspian East-West Middle Corridor and called for closer cooperation in transport and energy.
Bosphorus News examined the corridor agenda after the Istanbul meeting, where the three governments also backed stronger rail, road and regional connectivity.
Neither document turns Eternity-2026 into a declared Middle Corridor defense exercise. The Istanbul Declaration identifies the infrastructure projects the governments want to expand; the military documents describe protection of strategic facilities and transport corridors without naming those projects.
The two tracks nevertheless meet in the institutions involved. Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Georgia are seeking more traffic and energy connectivity across their territories while the November exercise brings their armed forces together with Azerbaijan Railways and the state body responsible for strategic facilities.
Black Sea and Kasos Add a Wider Infrastructure Security Context
Commercial and energy infrastructure elsewhere around Türkiye is facing its own security pressures.
In the Black Sea, Türkiye, Romania and Bulgaria are expanding mine-countermeasure capacity as drones and explosive debris threaten shipping routes and offshore installations. Mediterranean Shipping Company suspended new Novorossiysk bookings after MSC Ulsan III was hit by a drone.
In the Eastern Mediterranean, plans to resume seabed surveys for the Greece-Cyprus Great Sea Interconnector near Kasos have again placed a civilian infrastructure project inside a dispute over maritime jurisdiction and naval activity.
Eternity-2026 brings railway officials and Azerbaijan's strategic-facilities agency into military preparations before the November exercise begins, placing the protection of the routes themselves inside the Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Georgia security relationship.
Sources: Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense, Türkiye's National Defense Ministry, Türkiye's Foreign Ministry, State Agency for Protection of Strategic Facilities of Azerbaijan, Bosphorus News review and reporting.