NATO ships enter Black Sea for exercises

[inanna]

Source: International Herald Tribune

BRUSSELS, Belgium: NATO warships entered the Black Sea on Thursday for what the alliance said were long-planned exercises and routine visits to ports in Romania and Bulgaria.

The move is not linked to the tensions over Russia's invasion of Georgia, which lies on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, about 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the Romanian coast, said officials at NATO's military command in southern Belgium.

Three warships — from Spain, Germany and Poland — sailed into the Black Sea on Thursday. They are due to be joined by a U.S. frigate, the USS Taylor, later this week.

They are "conducting a pre-planned routine visit to the Black Sea region to interact and exercise with our NATO partners Romania and Bulgaria, which is an important feature of our routine planning," said Vice-Adm. Pim Bedet, deputy commander at allied maritime headquarters in Northwood, England.


Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/21/europe/EU-NATO-Black-Sea.php

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I don't like this one little bit.

[benld74]

1. Now the boys are playing with their boats in the bathtub!

[Silentobserver]

2. How nice!

I hope the so-called Western can take it when the Russians make a show of strength in an area of conflict where the Western is active or looks to be active... say like the Iranian gulf! These little pranks indicate the lack of serious thought behind the actions of the Western and could easily lead to a "situation" one of these days!

[WhiteTara]

3. Is there an antidote to testostrone poisoning?

that should really be the one ailment that all medical science focuses on. It would cure almost all ills by curing that one disease.