NATO ships in Black Sea on routine visit,
unrelated to Georgia crisis
The
Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1), a group of NATO warships, conducts
routine port visits and exercises with NATO member nations bordering the
Black
Sea
since 21 August.
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 Georgia
crisis and is completely unrelated. In accordance with the terms of the Montreux
Convention, the ships will stay no longer than 21 days in the
Black
Sea.
SNMG
1 currently comprises the Spanish SPS Adm Juan de Bourbon, the German, FGS
Luebeck and the Polish, ORP General K Pulaski and the
US
frigate, USS Taylor.
A
fifth member of SNMG1, the Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec, was recently
detached from the group to escort World Food Programme shipping off the coast of
Somalia
under Canadian national authority.
The
ships are currently in Constanta,
Romania
and will conduct exercises with Bulgarian and Romanian ships as well as paying a
port visit to Varna, Bulgaria
before leaving the Black
Sea.
SNMG 1 is one of NATO’s standing elements, a
group of member nations' frigates and destroyers, who exercise together year
round to promote interoperability.
Vice-Admiral Pim Bedet, Deputy Commander Allied
Maritime Component Command Headquarters Northwood stated “SNMG1, as a standing
core element of the NATO Response Force, is conducting a pre-planned routine
visit to the Black Sea region to interact and exercise with our NATO partners
Romania and Bulgaria, which is an important feature of our routine planning in
order to maintain high levels of interoperability and cohesion within the
Alliance."
Notes to
Editors:
1.
For further information contact Cdr Chris Davies,
Chief
Public
Affairs
Officer
Atlantic
Building, MCC Northwood.
Tel: 01923 843767
Email: pio@manw.nato.int
2.
Further information is available on www.manw.nato.int