Two Romanian-American joint military exercises involving thousands of troops have taken place in Romania in recent days.

One of the exercises, called Dragon Crossing Romania 2015, took part in Arad county, in western Romania, on October 25 and 26. It involved 150 American soldiers and 250 Romanian troops, as well as more than 100 military vehicles. Romania’s Defense Minister Mircea Dusa, American Ambassador to Romania Hans Klemm, and the commander of the US land forces in Europe Ben Hodges.

The other military exercise, which is called Justice Sword 15.2, has started on October 26 and continues until November 6 in the Smardan firing range near Galati. It involves over 1,800 Romanian soldiers and 300 American troops. The exercise also includes Abrams tanks, Bradley war vehicles, and Paladin self-propelled howitzers, which take part for the first time in such an operation in Romania.

The number and scale of military drills in Romania have been growing in the past two years, as the situation in the region remains tense.

Romanian troops also take part in the largest NATO military exercise after the Cold War, Trident Juncture 2015, which takes part in Italy, Spain, and Portugal between October 21 and November 6. The exercise brings together around 36,000 troops from more than 30 NATO nations. Romania has been represented in this exercise by the radiological, biological and chemical decontamination platoon.

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editor@romania-insider.com