More than 30,000 western troops will take part in one of Nato’s biggest military exercises since the end of the cold war amid rising tensions in Europe as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
For a month from Thursday, troops from 27 countries including the US, UK, Germany and France will help practise the defence of Norway from air, sea, and land. The exercise is taking place throughout the Nordic country as well as in the Atlantic and North and Norwegian seas. Neighbouring Finland and Sweden, which are not part of Nato but where public pressure to join the alliance is rising, will also take part.
“When a neighbouring country to Nato is at war, of course it affects the whole European security architecture,” Yngve Odlo, the Norwegian general in charge of the exercise, known as Cold Response, told the Financial Times. “But there is no increased threat to Norway and no change in Russian forces close to our border. It’s a long-planned exercise, and it’s quite clearly a defensive exercise.”