Expanded NATO launching Nordic exercises

A newly expanded NATO is launching major exercises with Nordic nations Finland, Sweden and Norway as the Western security alliance seeks to demonstrate forces are prepared to defend its borders.

NATO started the exercises, called Nordic Response 2024, on Sunday and will run the drills through March 14.

Nordic Response, which involves more than 20,000 troops, is part of a larger NATO exercise called Steadfast Defender that will stretch through May.

Sweden was slated to participate with Steadfast Defender even before it was officially ratified into NATO last week, expanding the military alliance into 32 member nations.

Finland, which applied for NATO membership at the same time as Sweden in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is also a new alliance member after ratification last year.

Nordic Response will be primarily conducted in northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland across multiple domains involving more than 50 ships and more than 100 aircraft.

Royal Norwegian Air Force Brigadier Tron Strand, commander of the Norwegian Air Operations Centre, said the exercises were vital to demonstrate the Nordic nations can “fight back and stop anyone who tries to challenge our borders, values and democracy.”

“With the current security situation in Europe, the exercise is extremely relevant and more important than ever before,” Strand said in a statement.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dramatically changed the security landscape in Europe, leading many nations, particularly in Eastern Europe, to expand their security forces.

Those concerns have extended even to Sweden, which for more than 200 years had followed a policy of nonalignment and largely stayed out of major conflicts like World War II and the Cold War.

The emerging threat from Russia has been particularly true for Finland, which shares a more than 800-mile land border with Russia.

Estonian intelligence officials warned last month that Russia may double the number of forces on NATO’s borders, including with Finland.

Finnish Minister of Defense Antti Häkkänen said in a Monday speech that “Russia’s astonishingly rapid descent from a quasi-democratic system into a totalitarian dictatorship makes a return to the post-war era impossible.”

“It is time to face the facts and say out loud what has been in the air for some time. Russia is a threat to the democratic world,” he said. “Gone are the days when we assumed our safety was guaranteed as long as we stood still and didn’t move.”