CNN News:俄罗斯与北约在黑海较量

Today we're exploring international tensions with Russia on the other side of the North Hemisphere in the Black Sea.
This eastern European body of water is strategically important because it connects through the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. It's surrounded by Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria. Those three last countries are members of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That makes them allies of the United States, another NATO member.
The organization was created in 1949 to protect western European nations against the Soviet Union. And in recent years as Russia has made moves to assert its power in the Black Sea region, NATO members have been making moves of their own to assert the strength of their military alliance.

There've been questions about that strength in recent years.
NATO countries are supposed to spend two percent of their gross domestic product on their militaries. But while America has done that, most other NATO countries haven't. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO members for not spending enough on the alliance.
So critics have questioned if the U.S. is still committed to NATO. The leader of the U.S.- European Command says America's security commitment's to NATO are quote "iron clad". As a demonstration of that, American planes and ships have been conducting military exercises in the area around the Black Sea and they've been harassed by Russian planes in the process.