US to hold major war games in Poland – ambassador
The US military are planning large scale war games in Poland, which would involve troops from several eastern European states, the American ambassador to the country, Stephen Mull, said.
Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania
and the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) will be
participating in drills, together with the Americans, Mull told
Radio ZET.
Lask airbase in central Poland has been selected as the venue for
the military exercise, the ambassador said, refraining from
saying when it was scheduled for.
Mull’s announcement comes just three days after US Vice President
Joe Biden’s visit to the Polish capital of Warsaw.
Biden’s trip was aimed at reassuring that America remains a
“steadfast ally” to Poland and the Baltic States after
they expressed anxiety over the events in the Crimea, which
signed a treaty of accession to the Russian Federation on
Tuesday.
The vice president promised an additional 12 F-16 fighter jets
for Poland and 10 more US F-15’s, instead of a planned four, to
be assigned to NATO operations in the skies over the Baltics.
He also spoke of rotating more American ground and naval forces
through the Baltic States for training exercises.
Biden once again stressed that there’ll be no changes to the US
missile defense plans in Poland and Romania, with the
controversial system to be operational by 2018.
Meanwhile, an unnamed US military official told Reuters that
Polish radio has misrepresented the ambassador’s remarks in their
report.
Mull was only talking about the discussion between Warsaw and
Washington of the “possibility of expanding aviation
activities at Lask to potentially include other NATO partners,
and then he mentioned those nations.”
Poland’s geographical position has made it a strategically important NATO member as the country borders the crisis-torn Ukraine as well as Russia’s western enclave in the Kaliningrad region.
On Friday, the Ukrainian military joined two weeks of multinational military exercises that involve troops from 12 NATO members and partner nations, Reuters reports.
The Saber Guardian war games will be staged at the Novo Selo training facility in eastern Bulgaria and will include some 700 troops from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and the US, as well as NATO representatives.
On Thursday, the US and NATO also announced that the annual Rapid Trident war games won’t be rescheduled and will take place in Ukraine this summer.
In addition to US and British soldiers, they’ll include units from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Ukraine.
Rapid Trident 2014 is designed to promote regional stability and improve interoperability between NATO and Ukraine, which isn’t a member of the North Atlantic Alliance.
On Friday, the Crimea and Sevastopol, which used to be part of
Ukraine, officially joined Russia, with President Putin signing
the finalizing decree.
Previously, Russian lawmakers ratified both the amendment and an
international treaty with the Crimea and the city of Sevastopol,
which the sides signed in the Kremlin on March 18.
