MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, Romania (AP) — NATO members carried out naval drills Wednesday in the Black Sea region in one of the largest Romania-led exercises of the year, as European allies mull the long-term reliability of security guarantees from the United States under President Donald Trump.
The drills in Romania, which borders Ukraine, come as European allies race to ramp up defense spending as relations with the U.S. have strained under Trump, as he has sought closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin while pushing to end the war in Ukraine.
The two-week Sea Shield 25 exercises, hosted by Romania, comprise about 2,300 military personnel from 12 nations — including the U.S. — and have been conducted at sea, on rivers, on land, underwater, and in the air. They aim to strengthen NATO’s readiness against “highly complex scenarios” such as coordinated maritime and aerial attacks or hybrid threats, according to Romania’s naval forces.
A French-made Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft took off from Romania’s eastern Mihail Kogalniceanu air base Wednesday, joined by a journalist from The Associated Press, on a mission searching for drifting mines over the Black Sea waters of Romania and Bulgaria — but none were found.
“These drifting mines could indeed represent a potential danger to navigation,” said French aircraft commander Lieutenant Tomy, whose surname was withheld by the French military. “The goal of an exercise like Sea Shield is for everyone to be able to speak the same language, coordinate to respond to different types of threats, and also put in place common tactics.”
Earlier on Wednesday, an anti-submarine tracking exercise to detect a “fictitious underwater threat” was carried out and also involved multinational naval forces. “It’s also about showing that NATO is present on the eastern borders of Europe and is developing integration and interoperability between its member countries,” Lieutenant Tomy added.
Wednesday’s combat exercises came a day after Romania’s Ministry of National Defense denied news reports, first published by NBC, that the U.S. is considering withdrawing about 10,000 American troops from eastern Europe, including from Romania and Poland.
“Romania has not received any official information … from the United States,” the ministry said. It added that several exercises are planned in Romania this year involving U.S. military personnel, including the Sea Shield 25 drills.
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
Many fear that such a withdrawal would embolden Russia, which NATO leaders said at a summit last year “remains the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security.”
Since Trump was inaugurated in January, he has said U.S. NATO allies should commit to spending at least 5% of their gross domestic product on defense, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. security priorities lie elsewhere. Almost a third of the military alliance’s members still don’t meet NATO’s target of at least 2%.
Since the war next door started in 2022, Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance. It has donated a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opened an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries, including Ukraine.
