Germany leads a military exercise in the Baltic as tensions with Russia simmer

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ROSTOCK, Germany (AP) — Germany is leading a major military exercise that focuses on moving troops and equipment to Lithuania as tensions with Russia on the eastern fringe of NATO simmer.

The German military leadership joined ambassadors of the Baltic nations and officers from other countries in the port of Rostock on Thursday to watch a ferry loaded with military vehicles leave the harbor headed for Klaipeda, Lithuania, escorted by police, a corvette, a minesweeper and a helicopter.

Military experts also demonstrated the interception of drones in the air and on the water, and Eurofighter jets flew over the port.

The exercise dubbed Quadriga is under the German navy's leadership and its various components, in which the army and air force also are participating. It involves more than 8,000 servicepeople from 14 countries. They include all the NATO allies with Baltic Sea coasts as well as the U.S., U.K., France and Canada.

The German military says 40 ships, 20 aircraft and more than 1,800 road vehicles are participating.

Gen. Carsten Breuer, the chief of staff of the German military, or Bundeswehr, said that “we are seeing close up today what it means in concrete terms when Germany takes international responsibility" and acts as a “reliable supply hub for NATO.”

“Almost all supply routes to the eastern flank go via Germany,” he said.

Germany is moving to strengthen its own military after years of neglect, and in May inaugurated a brigade in Lithuania, which borders Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and Moscow-allied Belarus, as worries about Russian aggression persist.

Quadriga stretches over several weeks and parts of it are expected to coincide in terms of timing, though not geographically, with a joint military exercise being held by Russia and Belarus later this month. That exercise — dubbed Zapad, or West — is expected to involve more than 13,000 troops.

Earlier this week, Breuer stressed that “we want deterrence, we don't want escalation." He cautioned that Moscow could use Zapad to fuel insecurity and itself warn of escalation.