The drills, dubbed Saber Guardian, began Friday at the Novo Selo training facility in eastern Bulgaria and will include some 700 troops from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States, as well as representatives from Nato.
The exercise, planned before the current East-West standoff over Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, is aimed at increasing regional flexibility, preserving and enhancing NATO interoperability, and facilitating multinational training, US Army Europe spokesman Jesse Granger said.
It follows joint exercises by US, Romanian and Bulgarian naval forces in the Black Sea.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Nato-Ukraine-join-military-exercise-in-Bulgaria/articleshow/32427711.cms
21/3/14
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France offers 4 warplanes for Baltic air patrols...
ReplyDeletePARIS: France is offering to send warplanes to help provide air patrols over the Baltic states and Poland, officials said Friday, amid growing tensions between the West and Russia and despite a looming big-ticket military deal between Paris and Moscow.
Defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, visiting Nato allies Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, announced France's willingness to support an alliance air-patrol mission in the Baltic states. The announcement suggested France was lining up with the most hawkish countries in the European Union over Russia's attempt to annex the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine — a move that has spooked some other former Soviet republics that are now independent nations.
The offer echoed those of the United States and Britain.
"France has heard the requests of its allies, and I told my Estonian colleague that France is ready to strengthen air defenses ... by sending four fighters from the French air force," Le Drian told reporters in the Estonian capital, Tallinn..................http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/France-offers-4-warplanes-for-Baltic-air-patrols/articleshow/32433422.cms
21/3/14