Romania, US begin 2nd day of joint military drills

Romanian and American troops have begun a second day of joint military exercises in the northwest part of the Eastern European country.

The weeklong military exercises began on Thursday in Romania’s Campia Turzii military base, located 300 kilometers (190 miles) northwest of the capital, Bucharest.

The military exercises include some 450 American and Romanian troops as well as US F-16s and Romania’s Mig-21 jets.

The joint military exercises are the fourth of its kind between the US and Romania. According to NATO, the drills were planned before the recent events in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunion with the Russian Federation.

The drills come at a time when the Western military alliance, NATO, is increasing its military presence in Eastern Europe.

NATO has beefed up its air patrols over the Baltic Sea and is flying AWACS aircraft over Romania and Poland on a daily basis to monitor the situation in Ukraine.

In addition, US Pentagon said last week that it would send 175 new troops to a Black Sea base in Romania.

Tensions between the Western powers and Moscow heightened after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16.

On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law documents that officially made the Black Sea peninsula part of the Russian territory despite condemnation from the West and the new Ukrainian government.

The move sparked angry reactions from the United States and the European Union, both imposing punitive measures against a number of Russian officials and authorities in Crimea.