The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter. Photo: US Navy

US and Romanian naval vessels begin joint exercises on Monday to enhance NATO’s maritime interoperability on the Black Sea, manoeuvres met with suspicion by Russia.

The destroyer USS Porter will drill with the Romanian frigate Queen Maria, and other ships, through Friday, according to the Romanian Navy. The US ship entered the Black Sea last week.

The exercises are part of the US military’s Operation Atlantic Resolve, a series of cooperative actions intended to reassure NATO partners along Russia’s borders after Russian intervention in the Ukraine.

Russia claims the drills are aimed at ratcheting up tensions between Moscow and Washington ahead of an NATO summit in Poland next month.

A senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said the presence of USS Porter does not have Moscow’s approval and “will undoubtedly lead to response measures,” according to media reports.

For Romania, the naval drills are part of its push for a stronger NATO involvement in Eastern Europe, and the creation of a permanent alliance fleet in the Black Sea to counter strong Russian influence in the region.

Bucharest hopes the possibility of creating such a fleet will be discussed at the next NATO summit in Poland.

Moscow meanwhile objects to any NATO build-up or expansion, seeing it as a threat to Russian security.

Worried by the conflict in eastern Ukraine and by Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Romania and other former communist countries, including Poland and the Baltic states, have repeatedly asked NATO to increase its presence in their territories.

However, Germany and the other western members of NATO, worried about a sharp Russian response, have rebuffed these appeals and have instead opted to intensify joint exercises and rotate alliance troops through the region.

As a result, NATO last year beefed up its presence in the Black Sea region by dispatching a flotilla to train with ships from the Romanian, Bulgarian, and Turkish navies.

Bucharest has considerably increased its defence budget for this year, with money planned to be spent on modernizing its navy, including the King Ferdinand and Queen Maria frigates.

NATO-member Romania is one of the Alliance’s strongest supporters among the ex-Communist countries of Eastern Europe.

In December, the US Navy has formally inaugurated its new missile defence base in Deveselu, southern Romania.

This is one of two European land-based interceptor sites for a NATO missile shield, a scheme which is viewed with deep suspicion by Russia.

Russia has warned Romania however to abandon the anti-missile system the US is installing at Deveselu.

Relations between Bucharest and Moscow are already rocky. Romania has been among the strongest regional backers of the package of Western sanctions imposed on Russia in connection with the crisis in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Romania also hosts another major US military base, at Mihail Kogalniceanu airport, near the Black Sea, which became operational in 2007.