Moscow: NATO has begun its largest military exercises since the Cold War as the West tries to keep up with Russia's growing military presence.
 |
| A Norwegian CV9030 tank involved in Trident Juncture exercises this week. |
About 50,000 soldiers, 250 aircraft, 65 ships and 10,000 tanks will take part in the Trident Juncture war games, which have began at various locations across northern Europe.
With 31 countries involved they are designed to test NATO's response to an attack on Norway, where most of the drills are taking place.
Footage showed military vehicles barrelling down muddy forest tracks, soldiers marching through barren landscapes and fighter jets taking off from remote runways.
While the notional enemy has been dubbed "Murinus", a "fictional near-peer adversary on the north-eastern flank of the Alliance", the focus of the drills have not been missed by Russia.
A deputy foreign minister said the exercises were "anti-Russian" and would be "taken into account in our military planning".
They follow the massive Vostok drills Russia held along its eastern borders last month. The Defence Ministry claimed they included 300,000 troops, the country's largest ever war games. Norway shares an Arctic border with Russia and has hosted a permanent deployment of US marines following Moscow's annexation of Crimea and its involvement in Ukraine.
Britain, which has sent 2700 troops and six ships to Trident Juncture, said last month it would deploy 800 commandos to Norway in response to Russia's rising Arctic activity.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the exercises would show the organisation was ready to defend its allies amid a "significantly deteriorated" security environment in Europe. Sweden and Finland are taking part even though they are not NATO members. The USS Harry Truman with its crew of 6000 joined the drills at the last minute, becoming the first American aircraft carrier to travel to the Arctic since the Soviet break-up of 1987.
"We're here now, in the north, demonstrating our capability to bring a large force to bear on a problem that is an Article 5 problem," said US Admiral James Foggo, referring to the NATO treaty's promise of mutual defence among member countries.
"We've brought in the equivalent of seven combat brigades over the last month,'' he said. ''That's impressive, and we'll operate here for the next couple of weeks in what is an unforgiving environment at sea and on land.''
Increasingly concerned about Russia since it annexed Crimea in 2014, Norway has sought to double the number of US Marines receiving training on its soil every year, a move criticised by Moscow.
"They're the biggest NATO exercises since the end of the first Cold War," said military analyst Alexander Golts. "The fact that they are being held just shows that a new Cold War has started. This means the confrontation is becoming more harsh."
Tensions with Russia have also been stoked by America's planned exit from a 1987 nuclear arms control agreement after Donald Trump accused Vladimir Putin of violating the treaty.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment