Europe and US troops in Swift Response exercises

Around a thousand paratroopers from Romania, the US, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands took part in exercises at Boboc air base in south-eastern Romania on Monday. The exercises are part of Defender-Europe 21, a large-scale US Army-led exercise designed to build readiness and inter-operability between the US, NATO allies and partner militaries. 

US Army, Europe and Africa Deputy Commanding General, Major General Joe Jarrard said “This has nothing to do with what happened in Ukraine. This is strictly an exercise to show the readiness of all the forces in Europe and really to work on the inter-operability and to show everyone that we are stronger together by doing exercises that train and make our forces more ready, so it's defensive in nature, it's not directed against any particular adversary, but it is to develop that interoperability and show our readiness together."  The exercises will continue into June.