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NATO launched its largest military exercise since the end of the Cold War on Thursday, bringing together 50,000 troops participating in a simulation of Russia's invasion of Norway.
Thirty-one countries – the 29 member countries of NATO, as well as Finland and Sweden – are participating in the exercise, which will run until November 7 in the center and the US. is from Norway, in the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. About 65 ships, 150 aircraft and 10,000 vehicles will also participate in the 2018 Trident Juncture drill, reported the Associated Press.
Moscow, informed by NATO of this exercise and sent observers, reacted angrily to this large-scale exercise, warning that it would consider a reaction to the intensification of the activities of the 39; NATO near the European border.
On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned: "NATO's military activities near our borders have reached their highest level since the Cold War." He added that the objective of this exercise would be to "simulate an offensive military action".
Earlier this week, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said: "The escalation of the political and military activity of NATO in the Arctic region, namely in the immediate vicinity of Russia and northern Norway, did not go unnoticed "by the Russian state press Tass.
Exercise is the largest organized in Norway since the 1980s and is part of a period of reciprocal mistrust between Russia and NATO. After the annexation of Crimea by Moscow and its continued involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, NATO reinvigorated its forces protecting its northern and eastern flanks.
The United States has recently decided to increase its deployment of navies in Norway to guard against Russian aggression. While 330 soldiers were previously based in central Norway, their number will increase to 700 from 2019 and will be deployed closer to the Russian border.
Such deployments, military exercises and other activities "can not be ignored, and the Russian Federation will take the necessary measures to ensure its own security," Zakharova warned earlier this month, as Tass said.
Icelandic Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson and Swedish Defense Ministers (Peter Hultqvist), Norwegian (Frank Bakke-Jensen), Danish (Claus Hjort Frederiksen) and Finnish (Jussi Niinisto) wrote a joint forum Thursday in Swedish. Dagens Nyheter newspaper. Ministers noted that there was "no military threat against the Nordic countries today, but we live in an unpredictable and uncertain period."
"Russia has shown both the willingness and the ability to use military force to achieve strategic goals," warned the article, explaining: "Cyber attacks and misinformation are actively used to creating divisions between European and American citizens, which in turn, defies democratic institutions and our ability to draw common conclusions. "
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the presence of Russian observers during the exercise, stressing that their presence would not pose a problem. "As long as they behave professionally and avoid dangerous situations and behaviors," reported Radio Free Europe.
Stoltenberg explained that the 50,000 soldiers, divided into two teams, "would take turns playing the role of the fictitious aggressor and the NATO defense forces. The exercise will test our willingness to restore the sovereignty of an ally – in this case Norway – after an act of armed aggression, "Stoltenberg explained, adding:" This scenario is fictitious, but the lessons we will learn will be real, "he said.
Russian forces organized their own exercises, the Vostok-2018 exercise, last month, marking one of the largest maneuvers of this type since 1981. About 300,000 soldiers were mobilized to participate in exercises in the extreme east of the country with Chinese and Mongolian armies.
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