In the News March 18

NATO’s Stepped Up War Preparations

Canada Participates in Joint Military Exercise in Norway

One of the largest NATO exercises since the Cold War is currently underway in Norway which shares a 195 kilometer long land border with Russia in the north-east. Code-named Cold Response 2022, NATO claims the exercise is “defensive and long-planned, and it demonstrates NATO’s ability to respond decisively to any threat, from any direction.”

Twenty seven nations including Canada, Finland and Sweden are involved with 30,000 troops “trekking across vast wilderness, conducting live-fire drills, leaping into freezing lakes and other manoeuvres.” More than 220 aircraft and more than 50 vessels are also involved. According to NATO, “Cold Response deals with a fictional scenario where Norway is attacked and NATO’s collective defense clause, Article 5 is invoked.” It says that the exercise demonstrates its “ability to deploy tens of thousands of forces to the High North, while at the same time reinforcing the eastern part of the Alliance to shield NATO against aggression.”

It claims that the Alliance is “transparent in their exercises and respects their international commitments” and that observers from all members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were invited to Cold Response, but Russia declined.

Finland and Sweden are designated NATO “Enhanced Opportunity Partners” and are being pressed to join NATO.

(TML Daily, posted March 18, 2022. With files from NATO.)