Over 2,500 troops from Romania and 12 other partner states will participate, between March 23 and April 3, in Sea Shield 2026, the largest multinational training exercise in the Black Sea region this year, Romania's Defence Ministry (MApN) reported on Wednesday.

Organised by the Romanian Navy, the exercise will take place at sea and on inland waterways.

'The two weeks will include training sequences in a national, inter-institutional and multinational framework, and the activities will cover all environments of action - maritime, rivers, lagoons, underwater, land and air, and will include complex scenarios adjusted for the current security challenges,' according to MApN.

This year's edition of the Sea Shield exercise will be attended by over 2,500 troops from Romania and 12 other partner states (Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the U.S. and Turkey), with 48 ships and boats, 64 combat vehicles, 10 aircraft and 10 autonomous unmanned systems.

The Romanian Navy will deploy about 1,500 of its troops and 33 sea-going ships and river-going vessels (including three frigates, two missile carriers, a maritime dredger, a minesweeper, a monitor, two armoured boats and four river-going boats), 14 combat vehicles, four autonomous unmanned systems and two navalised helicopters.

Sea Shield is coordinated annually by the Command of the Vice-Amiral Ioan Georgescu Naval Component and aims to increase the level of interoperability between the participating departments in a joint multinational framework, with the participation of all categories of forces of the Romanian Army, as well as to optimise the effort of the institutions in the defence, public order and national security system.

'By carrying out this exercise, the national and NATO bodies will strengthen their joint action procedures and cooperation relations, in order to preserve a stable security climate in the Black Sea region and on the eastern flank of NATO,' according to MApN. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Nona Jalba; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)