NATO News and Discussion

User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6474
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by caltrek »

I actually hate these gee-whiz here is the latest in technology and in the spread of military technology type articles. Unfortunately, in today's world they do have their place. Perhaps, one day we can safely return to "studying war no more."

Common Rifles Firing Same Ammo to Arm Finnish and Swedish Forces
by Thomas Newdick
March 27, 2023

Introduction:
(The Drive) Finland and Sweden are teaming up to jointly acquire a new range of infantry and sniper rifles for their respective armed forces, providing a significant degree of commonality as they both move closer to joining NATO. The decision, announced today, is also the latest step in a deepening military relationship between the two Nordic states, which last week — together with Denmark and Norway — also unveiled plans for a unified air defense alliance, to better cope with the Russian threat, a move you can read more about here.

Under a framework agreement signed today by representatives of the two defense ministries, the Finnish and Swedish Defense Forces will jointly acquire new guns produced by the Finnish arms manufacturer SAKO, located at Riihimäki in the south of that country, and established back in 1921.

Read more here: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ ... sh-forces
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by weatheriscool »

Turkey approves Finland's bid to join NATO
Source: DW
Turkey's parliament ratified Finland's application to join NATO on Thursday.

In doing so, it became the final of 30 NATO member states to support Finland's accession, clearing the last major hurdle for the country to join the military alliance.

Ratification was all but certain after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ended months of negotiations and blessed Finland's candidacy earlier this month.

Finland has a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia and is only a few technical steps away from becoming the 31st member of the alliance.
Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-approves-f ... a-65182070
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6474
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by caltrek »

Greenland Gets First NATO Envoy Amid Rising Tensions in Arctic
Mie Olsen
March 31, 2023

Introduction:
NUUK, Greenland (Courthouse News) — The government of Greenland and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced this month that they will for the first time send a diplomat from Greenland to join Denmark's permanent representation on the North Atlantic Council, the Brussels-based political decision-making wing of NATO.

Because the Arctic island is a self-governing part of Denmark, Greenland has never before had its own NATO representative who can provide expert knowledge on Arctic conditions and security interests in the region.

But in May, experienced foreign affairs diplomat and lawyer Lida Skifte Lennert of Nuuk will join the political and military alliance.

“I am happy that the road was paved for me to contribute with knowledge about Arctic conditions and Greenland's society," she said in an interview with Courthouse News. "The government of Greenland has been increasingly involved in foreign security and defense questions, and part of my task is to network and show the full diversity that we have in the Kingdom of Denmark."

Lennert emphasized that even though she represents Greenland, her job is to look after the kingdom's overall interests in full coordination with her 43 Danish colleagues, adding that the foreign policy collaboration between Denmark and its two self-governing territories – Greenland the Faroe Islands – has grown stronger.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/greenla ... n-arctic/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by weatheriscool »

Finland to join NATO Tuesday, military alliance chief says
Source: AP

10 minutes ago
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday Finland will become the 31st member of the world’s biggest military alliance on Tuesday, and that he hopes its neighbor Sweden can join in coming months.

“This is a historic week,” Stoltenberg told reporters on the eve of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. “From tomorrow, Finland will be a full member of the alliance.”

The former Norwegian prime minister said that on Tuesday afternoon, “we will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at the NATO headquarters. It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole.”

Stoltenberg said that Turkey, the last country to have ratified Finland’s membership, will hand its official texts to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday. Stoltenberg said he would then invite Finland to do the same.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/nato-finland ... 1cd30eabc9
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6474
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by caltrek »

Relief, But Some Mixed Feelings, as Finland Joins NATO
by Jari Tanner and Kostya Manekov
April 4, 2023

Introduction:
HELSINKI (AP via Courthouse News) — The selling points of the charming bed-and-breakfast are its century-old buildings, its spacious rooms and its proximity to Russia, a short cross-country ski trip to the east.

For Russians, it was place to stay when they came to buy dairy goods and dish soap in the closest part of the European Union, which became a part of NATO on Tuesday. For Finns with roots in the Karelia region, which covers parts of both Finland and Russia, they could go across the border to buy cheap gas and car parts and visit sites of the clashes between Finnish forces and the Soviet Red Army during World War II.

The harmony of the Kuuksenkaari bed-and-breakfast was briefly interrupted Tuesday morning when owners Eija Hiltunen and Eero Tuomisto argued, peacefully and quietly, about the necessity of Finland joining NATO, the Finnish flag lifted alongside 30 others in Brussels.

For Eija Hiltunen, who moved to the northern Karelia region with her husband more than a decade ago, Finland becoming part of the world’s biggest security alliance was an unnecessary provocation.

“For the past fifteen, twenty years now, things have been quiet here on the border. It has been easy to cross the border and there has been plenty of cross-border activity,” said Hiltunen.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/relief- ... ins-nato/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by weatheriscool »

NATO member Finland breaks ground on Russia border fence
Source: AP

By KOSTYA MANENKOV and SERGEI GRITS today
IMATRA, Finland (AP) — The construction of barbed-wired fence along Finland’s long border with Russia - primarily meant to curb illegal migration - has broken ground near the southeastern town of Imatra less than two weeks after the Nordic country joined NATO as the 31st member of the military alliance.

The Finnish Border Guard on Friday showcased the building of the initial three kilometer (1.8 mile) stretch of the fence to be erected in Pelkola near a crossing point off Imatra, a quiet lakeside town of some 25,000 people.

Finland’s 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member.

Construction of the border fence is an initiative by the border guard that was approved by Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government amid wide political support last year. The main purpose of the three-meter (10-foot) high steel fence with a barbed-wire extension on top is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia and give reaction time to authorities, Finnish border officials say.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/finland-russ ... 523d8a7b00
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by weatheriscool »

All Nato members have agreed Ukraine will eventually join, says Stoltenberg
Source: The Guardian

The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said all member countries have agreed that Ukraine will eventually join the transatlantic military alliance once the war is over, ahead of a meeting of western defence ministers discussing further military aid for Kyiv.

Further announcements on weapons and support are expected after the summit at the Ramstein airbase in Germany, but Stoltenberg also sounded notably upbeat about Ukraine’s longer-term prospects for joining Nato.

“All Nato allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member,” he said. “President Zelenskiy has a very clear expectation, we discussed this.

“Both the issue of membership but also security guarantees, and of course Ukraine needs security. Because no one can tell when and how this war ends. But what we do know is that when the war ends, we need to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... toltenberg
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6474
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by caltrek »

Russian ‘Ghost Ships’ Alarm NATO Countries That are Concerned with the Threat to the Expansion of North Sea Wind Farms
by Lasse Sørensen
May 26, 2023

Extract:
(Courthouse News) Nordic broadcasters DR, SVT, NRK and Yle recently reported that Russian spy ships are sailing around Scandinavian waters, including the North Sea, undetected. The vessels are mapping offshore windfarms, gas pipes and electrical cables in preparation for possible sabotage should a direct conflict with NATO occur, experts and intelligence sources told Nordic media. At least 50 Russian ships within the past 10 years had suspicious route patterns, experts said.

For example, a Russian Ministry of Defense vessel named Admiral Vladimirsky meant for marine research has systemically sailed and stopped near standing or emerging offshore windfarms to map the maritime infrastructure last November, a military expert told DR. Its route included stops and zigzagging among windfarms outside the U.K. coast for over a week before moving back to Russia via the Danish territory of the North Sea.

Admiral Vladimirsky’s automatic identification system, or AIS, signal – a system used to share a ship’s location and course – has reportedly been switched off during the voyage, turning it into a so-called "ghost ship." Nordic media was able to track its whereabouts by monitoring Admiral Vladimirsky’s radio communication with Russian fleet bases on land. When reporters from DR approached the ship outside the coast of Denmark, a uniformed masked man armed with a Russian military rifle stepped out a deck, sending the Danish team fleeing.

The reports on Russian ghost ships mapping European maritime infrastructure send a critical signal for European leaders to optimize security around energy projects such as the one at the North Sea.

While the protection of critical infrastructure is usually considered a national matter, there was a mutual understanding among participants of the Ostend Declaration that international cooperation in the sea needs strengthening, according to Danish broadcaster TV2.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/russian ... nd-farms/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by weatheriscool »

NATO Begins Largest Air Force Drills in Its History
Source: Foreign Policy
After six years of careful planning, NATO officially launched its 2023 Air Defender military exercise in Germany on Monday; 23 NATO countries—including newest member Finland—will participate, as will nonmember Sweden, whose bid to join the alliance has been stalled by Turkey and Hungary. Japan, which last month began talks to establish the bloc’s first liaison base in Asia to counter China, is also participating as an observer.

The 12-day training includes more than 250 aircraft and 10,000 personnel, making it the largest air deployment exercise in the bloc’s history. Officers will test how well aircraft from various nations communicate with one another as well as the effectiveness of cargo and fuel flight crews, both of which are used extensively by Ukrainian troops in Kyiv’s war against Russia. According to German Air Force Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, who is overseeing the exercise, Air Defender will also include an “evacuation from an airfield”—a direct response to the United States’ chaotic evacuation at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021.

Most importantly, though, Air Defender’s primary purpose is to demonstrate NATO unity in the face of Russian aggression, Gerhartz told reporters in Berlin. According to the German general, this was his principal objective in proposing the exercise in 2018. “The trigger for me back then was the capture, the annexation of Crimea,” he said. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Gerhartz said, NATO members on the alliance’s eastern flank closest to Russia want reassurance that they will be defended should the Kremlin turns its sights on them.
Read more: https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/06/12/na ... offensive/
User avatar
Powers
Posts: 662
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2023 7:32 pm

Re: NATO News and Discussion

Post by Powers »

weatheriscool wrote: Mon Jun 12, 2023 11:47 pm ...whose bid to join the alliance has been stalled by Turkey and Hungary.
Soon Poland...
Post Reply