Jul 20, 2006, 15:32 GMT
Kiev - An annual US-led summer naval exercise in the Black Sea was cancelled by a Washington decision to send its warship to the Middle East, officials at Ukraine's Ministry Defence said Thursday.
The US minesweeper Barry, planned command ship for the multi- national exercise, received orders to set course for Lebanon.
Defence officials from Greece, Turkey, and Ukraine - the other nations participating in the planned exercise - decided to cancel the training, rather than to attempt it without the Barry and its sophisticated communications equipment.
The exercises, called 'Sea Breeze', are the traditional annual high point of maritime training for Ukraine and other poorer nations around the Black Sea rim, because without US financial support those navies could not afford to participate.
The cancellation came only hours before the exercise was scheduled to begin. Two weeks of bilateral training between US and Ukrainian ground troops for the latter half of July also were called off.
The Sea Breeze exercises, begun in 1997, have been a long-term irritant to Moscow, which sees the US Navy-led training in the Black Sea as a violation of a traditional Kremlin sphere of influence.
Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece all have taken part over the years in Sea Breeze naval training with NATO warships in the Black Sea.
The most enthusiastic have been Ukraine and Georgia, who see the joint training as an early step towards joining NATO.
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