Nato holds huge military drills
Nato has begun its largest military exercises since the Cold War as the West tries to keep up with Russia’s growing military presence.
About 50,000 soldiers, 250 aircraft, 65 ships and 10,000 tanks will take part in the Trident Juncture war games that began at various locations across northern Europe yesterday.
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 yesterday 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 that 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 that 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 breakup of 1987.
Military analyst Alexander Golts told The Daily Telegraph: ‘‘They’re the biggest Nato exercises since the end of the first Cold War and 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.
– Telegraph Group