Other events in Baltic States

On 15 September, 2014, a formal opening ceremony of an international Exercise Rapid Trident 2014 was held at the drills ground the International Peace Keeping and Security Center Javorivskyi, in Lviv, Western Ukraine. Roughly 1,000 exercise participants from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Georgia, Spain, U.S., Canada, Latvia, Poland, Moldova, Norway, Romania Ukraine and Germany lined up in the square, reported Lithuania's Ministry of National Defence.

Lithuania is represented by 38 military servicemembers in the exercise, an infantry reconnaissance platoon formed by King Mindaugas Hussar Battalion and the Grand Duke Butigeidis Dragoon Battalion, and several staff officers.

Deputy Commandant of the Ukrainian Land Forces Colonel Academy Oleksander Syvak announced the exercise open. "Exercises of such level strengthens military cooperation between NATO member and partner states and provide opportunities to share particularly valuable and multiform experience for all of us," Syvak said.

"At this exercise troops will be able to communicate the knowledge gained at multinational exercises and training events to each other," said one of the OCEs Rapid Trident 2014 in Ukraine U.S. Colonel Alfred Renzi. According to the officer, such international exercises expand and strengthen military cooperation between NATO and Partnership for Peace countries.

Exercise Rapid Trident is an annual Partnership for Peace training event organised by the United States European Command (EUCOM) in Ukraine.