Romania Hosts Major NATO Exercises

Some 1,500 soldiers and over 100 military vehicles from Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Poland, Turkey, Romania and the US are taking part in the first of two joint military exercises in Romania.

The first exercise, named Rousouflex 2015, which started Wednesday and ends on June 26, includes tactical maneuvers, combat shootings and parachuting troops into combat situations, the Romanian Ministry of Defence said. It will also include a simulated operation on an offshore oil platform belonging to the Romanian oil company OMV Petrom.

The second exercise, Trident Joust 2015, starts on Thursday and will last for 12 days. It takes place at the Cincu, Romania's largest military shooting range, some 180 kilometres northwest of Bucharest, involving 1,000 troops from 21 NATO states.

The exercises are being conducted in the context of increased NATO worries over Russia's involvement in the area surrounding Romania.

The NATO alliance is struggling to adjust to a range of new security challenges coming from the south and east, including Russia's actions in Ukraine as well as Islamist terrorism.

Romania is one of NATO's firmest supporters among the ex-Communist countries of Eastern Europe.

Unlike some other countries in the region, Romania has given full backing to Western sanctions imposed on Russia in connection to the Ukraine crisis.

Romanians view Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and its support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine with concern.

Some fear that Russia might try something similar with the breakaway Russian-speaking enclave of Transnistria, in neighbouring Moldova.

A new military base at Deveselu, in the south of the country, set to form part of NATO's missile defence shield, is scheduled...