{"id":251079,"date":"2022-03-19T08:28:03","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T08:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=251079"},"modified":"2022-03-20T08:57:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T08:57:04","slug":"as-tensions-with-russia-escalate-how-significant-are-natos-military-drills-in-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=251079","title":{"rendered":"As tensions with Russia escalate, how significant are NATO’s military drills in Norway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

DW \u2013 March 17, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n

As Russia’s assault on Ukraine edged\u00a0closer to NATO territories this week, the alliance\u00a0kicked off a massive military drill in Norway.<\/p>\n

Around 30,000 troops, 220 aircraft\u00a0and 50 vessels from 27 countries are participating in NATO’s Cold Response 2022. Militarily non-aligned countries \u2014\u00a0Finland and Sweden, who maintain close relations with NATO, are also a part of this defense exercise\u00a0which began on March 14 and concludes on April 1.<\/p>\n

Cold Response got underway\u00a0just after Russian missiles struck a base in western Ukraine, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border of NATO member Poland.\u00a0Lieutenant Colonel Ivar Moen, spokesperson for the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, stressed that this military exercise was planned even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“Cold Response is normally held in March every year, where NATO troops practice their combat skills in the cold Norwegian weather. Drills are held on land, in the sea and in the sky. This year’s exercise was planned months in advance and is in no way linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,”\u00a0Moen told DW.<\/p>\n

“The main purpose of Cold Response is to test how Norway receives and manages allied reinforcements. This defensive exercise for Norway\u00a0is in line with Article 5<\/a>\u00a0of NATO’s Charter, which requires allies to rescue one another if attacked,”\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n

As a part of this drill, Norway was also required to invite all 57 member states of the\u00a0Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), including Russia, to observe the exercise.<\/p>\n

This is an obligation under the Vienna Document<\/a> \u2014\u00a0a series of security agreements between European nations, which also seek to ensure transparency around military drills.<\/p>\n

While the Kremlin declined the invitation, the Russian Embassy in Norway told French news agency AFP last week,\u00a0that “any buildup of NATO military capabilities near Russia’s borders does not not help to strengthen security in the region.”<\/p>\n

“This is not a buildup of troops. This is a defensive exercise and we will not be training near the border with Russia. It is a simple yearly drill to ensure Norway and its NATO allies are safe amid current and any future tensions,”\u00a0Moen said.<\/p>\n

Fabrice Pothier, strategy officer and CEO of policy group Rasmussen Global, explained that Russia’s views on NATO drills are\u00a0all a part of Moscow’s playbook.<\/p>\n

“Russia will pretend to feel threatened with these drills and call it a buildup of troops along its border with Norway. But NATO is allowed to hold drills to strengthen its troops and there is nothing threatening about that,”\u00a0he told DW.<\/p>\n

Bolstering combat skills in cold terrain<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Since the 1950s, Norway has hosted many military exercises for NATO countries, which aim to bolster\u00a0their military capabilities amid the cold and rugged Norwegian skies, fjords, seas and mountains.<\/p>\n

The country hosted the\u00a0first Cold Response drill in 2006 and plans the exercises months in advance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Nato rapid reaction force. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the Permanent Delegation of Norway to the OSCE, this year’s Cold Response is taking place in south-eastern, central and northern Norway in three phases.<\/p>\n

While the first phase of the drill has begun with\u00a0maritime drills\u00a0in the Atlantic, the second phase will focus on air operations involving NATO airplanes, testing their ability to land on icy terrains efficiently. The last phase will include\u00a0amphibious landing and land battle training. The entire drill is aimed at ensuring that Norway has the capability to handle NATO deployments.<\/p>\n

But amid rising tensions with Russia and the Kremlin threatening to use nuclear weapons<\/a>\u00a0in Ukraine,\u00a0Moen stressed that the exercises of Cold Response 2022\u00a0will not be adapted\u00a0to include drills to tackle nuclear threats.<\/p>\n

“Acting as a sort of Guardian of the North, Norway has planned this drill before the war in Ukraine. That plan will continue without any changes,”\u00a0Moen said.<\/p>\n

Stefan Scheller, an associate fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, thinks the focus of Cold Response 2022 which involves practicing amphibian operations in cold weather conditions, can help to strengthen\u00a0NATO.<\/p>\n

“It is very positive that 27 nations have signed up for the exercise, since the more participants you have, the better the training within the alliance will be,”\u00a0Scheller told DW.<\/p>\n

“Moreover, it is great that the drill was not canceled this year. Otherwise the alliance would have sent a wrong signal and a sign of weakness in these troubled times,”\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n

That’s echoed by Ivana Stradner, an advisor to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.<\/p>\n

“Some argue that this exercise is dangerous because Russia can misconstrue\u00a0it. However, launching this exercise is a step in the right direction because we should not allow Putin to dictate NATO’s security and canceling this exercise would show NATO’s weakness,”\u00a0she said<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Augment air defense forces’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While NATO continues to hold military drills\u00a0to fortify its territories and capabilities, Rasmussen Global’s Pothier thinks that the current security situation in Europe should motivate\u00a0NATO to\u00a0focus on different defense tactics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Military exercises do help strengthen troops, but I expect NATO to be more active in other fronts as well like pushing back on military threats from Russia and focusing on deploying air defense systems to protect Ukraine,”\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

“The edge of NATO’s border is now under attack and the only way to defend it is to augment NATO’s air defense forces,”\u00a0he added. Stradner highlighted that while Putin perceives NATO and its drills as a threat, it shouldn’t mitigate\u00a0NATO’s vigilance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Russia constantly claims to be threatened by NATO but this is a purely defensive alliance that does not seek to [encroach upon] Russian territory. We\u00a0can expect Putin to find NATO’s weak link in order to show that the alliance is a paper tiger. So\u00a0NATO has to be ready to respond,” she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATO deploys 30,000 troops, 50 warships for huge \u201cwar games\u201d on Russia\u2019s border<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251079"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251131,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251079\/revisions\/251131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}