Minesweeping exercise starts

  • 2007-09-03
  • By Mike Collier
KLAIPEDA - An international minesweeping exercise is under way off the coast of the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda.

Ships from Germany, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, Estonia, Poland, Belgium, France, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Lithuania are all involved in the exercise, codenamed 'Open Spirit'. More than 1,000 personnel are involved.

Similar exercises have taken place annually in the waters of all three Baltic states since 1996 and form part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. The exercise continues until Sep. 10.

Rather than being a 'war game' or simulated scenario, participants in Open Spirit will be engaged in finding and neutralising 'live' munitions. Thousands of mines and other explosives are thought to remain in Baltic waters, most of them left behind from the two world wars.