NATO, Russia to Hold Naval Exercises

[The Watcher]

NATO, Russia to Hold Naval Exercises

NATO and Russia will test their response to a terrorist attack in June, the alliance officials were quoted by Reuters as saying.

The exercises in the Baltic Sea will involve oil rigs, hostages and mass casualties.

Diplomats quoted by the agency said the war game would take place on June 22-25. This underlines the cooperation between NATO and Russia although Russian president Vladimir Putin had decided not to take part in a NATO summit in Istanbul the following week.

About 1,000 people from NATO’s 26 nations, its 20 Euro-Atlantic partnership countries and Russia will take part in the one-day exercise at sea which will be followed by a brainstorming session in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the agency quoted the alliance officials as saying. “NATO and Russia will exercise together how to respond to a mass casualty and environmental disaster situation caused by a terrorist attack,†an official said. He declined to elaborate on the trainings scenario.

source
Diplomats said Putin had probably turned down an invitation to the Istanbul summit because he did not want to appear to be giving his blessing at the first top-level meeting of the enlarged alliance.

This month’s NATO-Russia exercise follows one in 2002 in which the two sides tested their response to an attack on an industrial installation. “This is a substantial exercise...which demonstrates how much we can do together,†the official was quoted by the agency as saying.

 

[Salman78]

The outcome of this exercise would be just another large bill $$$ of deployment of naval assets for Russia.. Poor fellows

 

[Salty Dog]

Russia to join large-scale NATO-led naval exercises

17:48 | 16/ 05/ 2008

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Navy will participate for the first time in a large-scale submarine rescue exercise conducted by NATO countries and their allies, a Navy spokesman said on Friday.

The Bold Monarch 2008 exercise will be staged near the Norwegian coast from May 26 to June 7.

"The purpose of the exercise is to ensure compatibility of rescue equipment used by the Russian Navy and the navies of NATO countries, and to demonstrate ability to coordinate cooperative efforts during escape and rescue missions," Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.

Support personnel and equipment from Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands; Norway, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, the U.K. and the United States will be engaged "to solve complex rescue and medical problems in a variety of scenarios."

Russia will send the Georgy Titov deep-sea rescue ship from the Northern Fleet to join the exercise, the spokesman said.

Good to see this, especially since joint submarine rescue may improve future rescue efforts like the Kursk. Hopefully this paves the way for other NATO-Russia naval exercises.

 

[Feanor]

There was news of a NATO Russian exercise in the Black Sea also.

http://arms-expo.ru/site.xp/049057054048124050051051052.html

Again sorry for the Russian link, I just don't have any in English. The ship is the "Ladnuiy" and it's from the Black Sea Fleet, set to participate in Mediterranean exercises with NATO. It's a Project 1135.6 Frigate.