NATO's message to Russia through largest series of exercises since Cold War

According to AFP news agency, NATO's largest series of exercises since the end of the Cold War, lasting from March 4 to March 14, was deployed to deal with escalating tensions in Europe as the conflict in Ukraine entered its third year.

The exercise involves more than 20,000 soldiers from 13 countries. The Norwegian-led exercise, called Nordic Response 2024, marks Finland's largest-ever participation in a military exercise abroad, with more than 4,000 Finnish soldiers taking part. Meanwhile, on March 7, just hours after officially becoming the 32nd member of NATO, Sweden joined the exercise.

For the two Nordic countries, Russia's special military campaign in Ukraine has caused the two countries to reverse their long-standing neutrality policy and apply to join NATO in May 2022.

According to analysts, with the ongoing large-scale exercise, NATO wants to send a strong and clear message to Russia that alliance members are ready to defend each other if necessary and that the alliance will defend all territories up to the border with Russia. In this series of exercises, soldiers and military equipment participate in responding to all possible scenarios.

During the week, the crew of the destroyer Normandie, one of France’s most modern warships, was tasked with hunting down and destroying a submarine that had snuck into the frigid waters of Norway. The German submarine acted as a mock target, torpedoing a nearby Italian aircraft carrier, the Giuseppe Garibaldi.

“After scanning the air with the NH90 helicopter and using the frigate’s radar system, we successfully detected the enemy submarine. We ordered the frigate to launch torpedoes and destroy the submarine. Of course, everything is hypothetical,” Captain Thomas Vuong, commander of the Normandie, told a foreign news agency.

Commander Thomas said the Normandie's 146-man crew had received no advance warning of the German submarine attack, which was intended to test their readiness in the harsh environment above the Arctic Circle.

“The exercise was really useful because we experienced a very high level of realism to better prepare our units. The fjords are a unique environment, with different temperature characteristics to what we are used to in the Atlantic. Military training here is extremely valuable experience,” said Colonel Thomas.

For his part, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that Moscow was monitoring the exercises, which Moscow considered provocative. Deputy Minister Grushko noted that Moscow had taken all necessary measures to ensure Russia's defense capabilities in the current situation.