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US troops to arrive in Eastern Europe for month-long exercises
Last Updated: 2014-04-23 08:31 | Xinhua
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About 600 U.S. Army soldiers will arrive in Poland and the three Baltic states in the coming days for a series of military exercises, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.

The move is considered as a step aimed at reassuring NATO allies amid the ongoing Crimea crisis.

About 150 soldiers of the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy, will reach Poland Wednesday to begin a bilateral infantry exercise with Polish troops. About 450 additional soldiers from the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team will also arrive for similar exercises in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in days after that.

The troops will be in place in all of the four countries by April 28 and the exercises will last about a month, Kirby said at a Pentagon press briefing.

"But then we will rotate fresh troops in for more exercises," he added.

Kirby stressed that these military exercises are the first in a series of expanded U.S. land force training activities in the Baltic region scheduled to take place this year and possibly into next year.

He said discussions are ongoing about expanding the bilateral exercises into other countries in the region and about the establishment of combined exercises involving other NATO member and partner countries.

"I think we're looking for a broad swath of ways that we can help reassure our allies and partners, and it doesn't all have to be through the alliance," Kirby said. "We take our obligations very, very seriously on the continent of Europe."

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced last week that the U.S. will extend the stay of its air forces and military personnel in Poland through the end of 2014 and vowed to offer non-lethal aid to crisis-ridden Ukraine.

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