Romania Launches Naval Exercise in Black Sea

The military exercise, codenamed “Vector 2014”, is to end later this week and will involve some 1,600 naval personnel, the Romanian Defence Ministry confirmed on Monday.

“The exercise is organized annually and aims at training naval structures for their missions. It was planned around one year ago,” the ministry said.

Military activity in the Black Sea region has intensified in recent months following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

The US frigate Taylor is currently stationed in the region, while the US destroyer Donald Cook and a French reconnaissance ship, Depuy de Lome, left the Black Sea at the end of April.

Last week, Romania urged the United States and NATO to boost their military presence in the country to promote stability in the Black Sea region.

During an official visit to Washington, the Romanian Foreign Minister, Titus Corlatean, stressed the importance of an enhanced, long-term US presence in the Black Sea region "to deter any other destabilising initiatives," presumably referring to Russia.

In a related development, the United States is to deploy 600 more marines in southeastern Romania at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airport Administrative Center.

Following the new deployment, the total size of the US military presence in Romania will reach 1,600 troops. Mihail Kogalniceanu airport became a major US military base in 2007.

NATO-member Romania is one of Washington’s strongest supporters among the ex-Communist countries of Eastern Europe.

Romania, which has a 694km-long border with Ukraine, has been among the strongest regional backers of Western sanctions against Russia since it annexed Crimea.