NATO Holds Reduced Black Sea Naval Exercises without Ukraine
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Four NATO warships are in the Black Sea for annual Sea Breeze military drills with regional navies, but this year the number of participants has fallen significantly due to the civil war in Ukraine, which hosted the exercises in previous years.
The ships form NATO’s rotational Mine Counter-Measures Group TWO (SNMCMG2) formation led by Italian Navy captain Giovanni Piegaja.
The group’s flagship is an Italian Navy frigate, the ITS Aviere, accompanied by another Italian battleship ITS Rimini, Turkish TCG Akçay and British HMS Chiddingfold.
The task force is expected to be beefed up by American and Greek warships. The US has also provided a patrol warplane.
Last year the number of participants was much greater. It included Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine and the US, with France, Germany, Libya, Lithuania, Qatar, and UAE sending observers.
The group’s mission in the Black Sea consists of organizing training with Bulgarian and Romanian navies. The force is set to call at the Bulgarian port of Burgas on July 4 for the first stage of the Exercise BREEZE drill this year led by the Bulgarian Navy.
Later the force will move to Romanian waters for additional joint training, Reuters reported.
The main objective of the exercise is to improve collaboration of the naval forces of different NATO member states. Bulgarian Naval Forces’ staff will be certified for independent operations planning conformity, according to NATO criteria.
Italy assumed the command of the SNMCMG2 group on June 19 in Catania, Sicily. Since then the group has patrolled the Mediterranean Sea and conducted mine counter-measures and force integration training, as part of NATO’s counter-terrorism Operation ACTIVE ENDEAVOUR, NATO’s website says.
The Sea Breeze naval drills in the Black Sea have been conducted annually since 1997 with Ukraine hosting the exercise in the Crimea peninsula and waters around it.
Due to the Republic of Crimea reuniting with Russia earlier this year, Ukraine has relinquished the right to host the exercise, which was redeployed to the western sector of the Black Sea.
The bloody turbulent developments in Ukraine, where troops and private armies are trying to force into submission the eastern regions demanding federalization of the country, have put the whole region on alert. Both NATO and Russia have conducted a number of military drills close to Ukrainian borders.