Romanian News Agency
July 18, 2014
NATO warships arrive in Constanta harbor
Four NATO warships, part of the Standing NATO Mines Counter Measures Two – SNMCMG-2 have arrived on Thursday afternoon in Constanta Harbor, for a five-day stopover.
According to the spokesperson of the Naval Forces HQ (SMFN), lt. col. Corneliu Pavel, the visit is part of the International Activity Plan of the Romanian Naval Forces for this year and is part of the line of developing relations between Romanian sailors and the alliance partners, the SNMCMG-2 Group being a multinational force specialized in mining-demining operations, part of the NATO Maritime Command, which is currently on a navigation-safety mission.
Led by Italian Captain Giovanni Piegaja, SNMCMG-2 is currently composed of the Italian frigate ITS Aviere (flagship), the Italian minehunter ITS Rimini, the Royal Navy minehunter HMS Chiddingfold (UK) and Turkish minehunter TCG Akcay.
SNMCMG-2’s mission in the Black Sea is to consolidate maritime security in the area, running joint exercises with Romanian and Bulgarian sailors during the BREEZE 2014 exercise.
On Friday, joint training activities of the Romanian and foreign sailors in port are programmed, as well as a visit of the official delegation to the Fleet Command and the Constanta County Prefecture, as well as a press conference aboard the ITS Aviere, held by Commodore Dan MacKeigan, Deputy Chief Of Staff Operations, NATO Maritime Command, Captain Giovanni Piegaja and Captain Tiberiu Chodan, Commander of the Fleet.
The SNMCMG-2 vessels will depart from Constanta harbor on Monday, subsequently carrying out exercises at sea, together with dredgers ‘Locotenent Lupu Dinescu’ and ‘Sublocotenent Alexandru Axente’, the frigate ‘Regina Maria’ and a Puma Naval helicopter.
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Voice of America News
July 18, 2014
NATO Black Sea War Games End
BUCHAREST: Seven NATO countries completed naval exercises in the Black Sea on Thursday, officials said, in a signal of the alliance’s resolve to support east European members…
Though scheduled before the crisis erupted, the war games took on added significance because of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March, and the subsequent outbreak of a pro-Russian separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
Led by the Bulgarian navy, the 10-day drills aimed to improve tactical coordination of allied units “in a multi-threat environment,” NATO has said. Vessels took part from Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Britain and the United States.
“The navy exercises BREEZE 2014 successfully concluded,” a Bulgarian defense ministry spokesman said. The Romanian Navy said exercises involved commercial traffic monitoring, reaction to asymmetric threat warnings, anti-submarine warfare and artillery firing.
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