Newly enlarged NATO started drills in Finland, Norway and Sweden in defense of its Nordic turf.

New addition Finland, pending member Sweden included

HELSINKI — NATO began an exercise Monday to defend its newly expanded Nordic territory as more than 20,000 soldiers from 13 nations took part in drills that will last nearly two weeks in the northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden.

With over 4,000 Finnish soldiers taking part, the Norway-led Nordic Response 2024 represents the NATO newcomer’s largest-ever participation in a foreign exercise, according to Finland’s military.

“For the first time, Finland will participate as a NATO member nation in exercising collective defense of the alliance’s regions,” the Finnish Defense Forces said in a statement.

The Swedish Armed Forces said about 4,500 personnel from its air force, army and navy would take part in the drill, which is being conducted in demanding Arctic winter conditions.

Finland, which shares a 830-mile border with Russia, joined NATO in April 2023 in a historic move following decades of military nonalignment. With its bid now ratified by all NATO members, neighboring Sweden is currently finalizing formalities to enter the military alliance as its 32nd member — most likely this month.

Both Sweden and Finland had developed strong ties with NATO after the end of the Cold War, but public opinion remained firmly against full membership until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nonalignment was seen as the best way to avoid tensions with Russia, their powerful neighbor in the Baltic Sea region. But the Russian aggression caused a dramatic shift in public opinion in both countries, and they applied jointly for NATO membership in May 2022.

For years, the biannual NATO drill, which has been conducted in the Arctic extremes of northern Norway, was called “Cold Response.”

However, “thanks to the NATO expansion with Finland and eventually Sweden, we are now expanding the exercise to a Nordic Response,” the Norwegian Armed Forces said on its website. This year, the drill is hosted equally by Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The pan-nordic drill is part of Steadfast Defender 24, NATO’S biggest exercises in decades, with up to 90,000 troops involved over several months of drills that are aimed at showing that the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its border with Russia.

The participating nations in the current exercise that runs through March 15 are Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United States.

The combined joint training will focus on the defense and protection of the Nordic region, Norwegian military officials said.