SOFIA, July 04. /ITAR-TASS/. NATO’s naval war games Breeze’2014 will be held in the Western sector of the Black Sea from July 4 through to July 13, Bulgarian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
Combat ships committed by Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and the US will take part in the drills. In addition, the US has provided a patrol warplane and the NATO group of mine-clearing ships has dispatched four ships.
The main objective of the war games is to improve the tactical compatibility and collaboration of the naval forces of different NATO member-states in unexpectedly emerging critical situations.
During the exercise, the staff of Bulgarian Naval Forces will be certified for conformity of the level of planning of independent operations to NATO criteria.
The staff of the exercise will be located on a naval in the Bulgarian port city of Burgas.
NATO has considerably stepped up its naval presence in the Western sector of the deeply continental Black Sea after the outbreak of turbulent events in Ukraine and the March 2014 referendum in Crimea, in which the absolute majority of voters voted in favor of the region's historic reunification in Russia.