The presence of NATO warships in the Black Sea area is not related to the current tension between Georgia and Russia, the alliance said Thursday.
A group of NATO warships are conducting routine port visits and naval exercises with Romania and Bulgaria.
"This deployment is routine in nature and has been planned for over a year, notification of the requirement to transit the Turkish Straits was given in June, well before the current Georgiacrisis, and is completely unrelated," NATO said in a press release.
The ships are currently in Constanta, Romania, and will conduct exercises with Bulgarian and Romanian ships as well as pay a port visit to Varna, Bulgaria, before leaving the Black Sea.
The ships have been in the area since Aug. 21 and will stay no longer than three weeks, the press release said.
The warships, known as Standing NATO Maritime Group One, are a group of frigates and destroyers from member nations. They conduct exercises together round the year to promote inter-operability.
The group of ships comprises the Spanish SPS Adm Juan de Bourbon, the German FGS Luebeck, the Polish ORP General K Pulaski, and the U.S. frigate USS Taylor. A fifth ship, the Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec, was recently detached from the group to escort World Food Program shipments off the coast of Somalia.
Source:Xinhua
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