ROSTOCK, Germany (AP) \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Military experts also demonstrated the interception of drones in the air and on the water, and Eurofighter jets flew over the port. <\/p>\n
The exercise dubbed Quadriga is under the German navy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The German military says 40 ships, 20 aircraft and more than 1,800 road vehicles are participating.<\/p>\n
Gen. Carsten Breuer, the chief of staff of the German military, or Bundeswehr, said that \u201cwe are seeing close up today what it means in concrete terms when Germany takes international responsibility\u201d and acts as a \u201creliable supply hub for NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost all supply routes to the eastern flank go via Germany,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Germany is moving to strengthen its own military after years of neglect, and in May inaugurated a brigade in Lithuania<\/a>, which borders Russia\u2019s Kaliningrad exclave and Moscow-allied Belarus, as worries about Russian aggression<\/a> persist.<\/p>\n