NATO started this Sunday a naval exercise in the Baltic Sea lasting almost two weeks with more than 7,000 members of the army, air force and marines from 16 countries, including two that aspire to join the military alliance, Finland and Sweden.
The annual Baltops naval activity, which began in 1972, not done in response to any specific threatbut the military alliance said that “with the participation of Sweden and Finland, NATO is seizing the opportunity in an unpredictable world to improve endurance and strength as a whole” along with the two aspiring Nordic nations.
During years, both countries had no military alignment, until their governments decided to apply for NATO membership in May, as a direct consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. In recent years, Moscow has repeatedly warned Helsinki and Stockholm not to join the Western military alliance and warned of retaliation in case they do.
Before the naval drill, in which 45 ships and 75 aircraft participated, the top US military official said in Sweden – site of the Baltops 22 exercise – that it was especially important for NATO to show its support for the Helsinki and Stockholm governments.
“It is important that we, the United States, and the other NATO countries show our solidarity with both Finland and Sweden in this exercise,” US General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a press conference on Saturday. aboard the amphibious warfare ship USS Kearsarge, which is docked in central Stockholm.
Accompanied by the Swedish Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson, Milley stressed that the Baltic Sea is a body of water of great strategic importance, “one of the great sea routes in the world”.
He stated that, from Moscow’s perspective, the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO will be “very problematic” and will leave Russia in a complicated military position, as the Baltic Sea coastline would be almost completely surrounded by NATO membersexcept for the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and the Russian city of Saint Petersburg and its surroundings.
NATO member Turkey, which has maintained good relations with Russia, has opposed Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.alleging his alleged support for a Kurdish group that Turkey describes as terrorist.
On the other hand, The United States has never moved a warship as large as the USS Kearsarge257 meters (843 feet) long, to the Swedish capital, where it sailed through narrow passages in the Stockholm archipelago, Milley said.
As close NATO partners, Finland and Sweden have participated in the naval exercise since the mid-1990s.
Baltops 22 is scheduled to end in the German port of Kiel on June 17.
