- I must note we were surprised that the manoeuvres being held in the Norwegian waters practice operations in the event of deterioration in a conflict over access to resources, Russia’s Foreign Minister told Interfax at the press-conference after his bilateral meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre yesterday.
Today is the final day of the NATO exercise Cold Response 09, involving more than 7000 soldiers from 13 countries. The exercise started on March 16 and is the biggest NATO exercise in Norway this year.
The soldiers have trained in the two northern Norwegian counties of Nordland and Troms and in the coastal waters outside at deploying military quick reaction forces into an area of crisis.
The NATO-Russia ties have improved lately, but both parts still have their disagreements. Yesterday NATO’s top commander John Craddock told Reuters:
- Russia seems intent on weakening Western institutions and its relations with NATO will likely be more strained in the coming years than at any time since the Cold War ended.
