The United States has set American troops and helicopters to take part in joint-training exercises, in Latvia, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.
Sixty soldiers from the 501st Airborne Infantry Regiment and five Black Hawk assault helicopters will take part in the drills with Latvian air forces.
The troops add to the 200 American soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division and the nine Abrams tanks currently stationed at the Latvian military base at Adazi.
The United States has been contributing troops as a NATO member to part Operation Atlantic Resolve, a series of joint confidence-building military exercises with its allies in Eastern Europe.
This news comes days after NATO leaders decided at the biennial Warsaw summit to deploy four 1000-men battalions in Poland and the Baltic States. The move has been called a response to Russian aggression on the edge of NATO territory.
A meeting of the special NATO-Russian Council is also taking place in Brussels, with leaders on both sides hoping for a productive dialogue on cooperation in Europe.
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