Published time: March 13, 2015 18:53
About 350 US army officers, as well as US tanks, helicopters and armored personnel carriers will arrive in the Balkan country for the bilateral drills, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said Friday, Reuters reported.
The drills are to begin Sunday and will be conducted at the Novo Selo training range in southeastern Bulgaria, with about $30 million spent by the US for the modernization of Bulgaria’s military infrastructure, according to Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev.
“The Bulgarian Army will use the drills to test its ability to react in crisis situations,” a Defense Ministry official said. “Of course, we cannot underestimate what is happening in Ukraine.”
The Bulgarian Armed Forces are also set to participate in a couple of annual drills to be held in Ukraine in July – the Rapid Trident and Saber Guardian military exercises, the ministry said.
READ MORE: 6 NATO warships take part in Black Sea naval drills
In March, Bulgaria, which joined NATO in 2004, also participated in naval drills in the Black Sea alongside Romania, Turkey, the US, Canada, Germany and Italy. Anti-air and anti-submarine exercises of six vessels were headed by a US admiral.
Upon finishing the exercises, the ships of the Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) arrived in the Romanian port of Constanta on Friday for a scheduled visit. SNMG2 leadership is set to meet local authorities and Navy officials to discuss any further multinational exercises in the Black Sea, according to the NATO Maritime Command statement.
The presence of NATO warships in the Black Sea is likely to further antagonize already strained relations with Russia, as the US and NATO are outraged by Crimea’s decision to cede from Ukraine and join Russia. The Alliance has been increasing its military and naval presence in the sea, which borders Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and several other countries.
Previously, Russia’s envoy to NATO, Aleksandr Grushko, said Moscow would respond to NATO’s increased presence in the Black Sea with “necessary countermeasures.” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov says allied forces are ignoring diplomacy and NATO is using the situation in Ukraine to push closer to Russia's border. However, he dismissed the idea that the drills being carried out in the Baltic States, Poland and the Black Sea were a threat to Russia.
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