Sweden´s and Finland´s NATO cooperation and the increasing military activities in the High North
Adele Buckley
Dear friends in the arctic nwfz discussion group,
The following article by Agneta Norberg is most interesting, and addresses important concerns about the Arctic and the significant increase in military activities there. My view concurs with hers - having NATO in the Arctic elevates tensions and NATO presence there should be actively discouraged.
However, are a few points that are not accurate. In the sections about Cold Response 1 and 2, she quotes directly from an article in the Moscow Times, attached. , but according to Ronald O'Rourke " Since 2006, several member and partner states have participated in Cold Response, a wide-ranging annual crisis response exercise hosted by Norway. During the most recent joint maneuvers in March 2012, 14 nations fielded air, land and naval assets and more than 16,000 troops. Although the exercises re multilateral, they are not conducted under the auspices of NATO" This information and more regarding NATO and the circumpolar states, is found in Changes in the Arctic Background and Issues for Congress, Ronald O'Rourke, Coordinator, Specialist in Naval Affairs, Aug 1, 2012 Congressional Research Service 7-5700, www.crs.gov R41153.
Adele Buckley
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Dear Friends in IPB Steering Committee,
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In the discussions in the working groups, on Sunday, about what IPB should work with, I mention in my group the ongoing NATO/US wargames with names like: Nordic Air Meet nr.1, Loyal Arrow, Cold Response nr.1, Cold Response nr.2 (16.500 troops close to Russian border) and recently, in late August beginning of September, Nordic Air Meet nr.2.(65 warplanes from different countries) US is always taking part in all wargames.
Bruce Kent, who was one in my group, urged me to send this out on the IPB
email-list. This is what I said in my speech on October 28th conference about The Arctic, arranged by Swedish Peace Council, this year.
Greetings from Agneta Norberg
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Sweden´s and Finland´s NATO cooperation and the increasing military activities in the High North.
October 28th 2012.
Agneta Norberg.
My intervention here is about Sweden and Finland, two countries in Partnership for Peace. Before I go into this I will quote The US National Security Directive nr.66, 2009 : “The United States has broad and fundamental national Security interests in the Arctic region and is prepared to operate either independently or in conjunction with other states to safeguard these interests. These interests include missile defense and early warning; deployment of sea and air systems for strategic sealift, strategic deterrence, maritime presence and maritime security operations; and freedom of navigation and over-flight. ”
In November 2009 the U.S. department of the Navy released a paper called Navy Arctic Roadmap. The paper refers to the presidential directive I quoted earlier and this paper speaks about the intent to ”Preserve the global mobility of United States military and civilian vessels and aircrafts throughout the Arctic region. It stipulates in its fourth point that the senate should act favorably on US accession to the UN convention on The Law of the Sea promptly, to protect and advance US interests, with the respect to the Arctic. Joining will serve the national security interests of the United States, including the maritime mobility of US armed forces worldwide. It will secure US sovereign over extensive marine areas, including the valuable natural resources they contain.” Less than three weeks after unveiling this Arctic strategy, NATO held a two-day meeting in Iceland attended by US/NATO top-military commanders and the NATO Secretary General. They proclaimed that the high north is going to get more of the NATO - alliance attention. Russia was not invited to send an observer. Norway has now moved its operational command into the Arctic , the only command centre above the polar circle, and purchased 48 F-35 fighter jets for Arctic patrol. Denmark is said to have plans to establish an Arctic Command, an Arctic response force and military buildup at the Thule airbase in Greenland. The US and Britain are conducting joint submarine warfare exercises under the Polar ice cap.
Today all countries bordering Russia are members of US/NATO or in Partnership for Peace , which most people describe as an antechamber to NATO. US Military Air Fields are set up in all Baltic states : Amari in Estonia, Siauliai in Lativa, Lielvard in Lituania, as well as Krzsiny in Poland and Taszar in Hungaria. Fighters from the US, Great Britain, Germany, Turkey, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, The Netherlands, Belgium, Chech Republic, Rumania and Sweden are training on daily routine close to S:t Petersburg. All this is a breach of the treaty on conventional Forces in Europé . Estonia, Lituania and Lettland have not signed the Treaty on Conventional Forces ,why Washington says they have the right to deploy these warfighters in the vicinity of Russia. Russia is today totally incircled by hostile installations and some of these are radars which will serve the dangerous s. c. National Missile defence. For this purpose huge radar installations are installed in northern Norway, at Vardö and in Rumania and in Turkey. I urge you to scrutinize the world map on the wall and notice all the US radar installations on the inflated globe which I have brought.
How does Sweden and Finland fit in to this pattern? Both countries have taken part in numerous war exercises, on land, in air and sea, during the last years together with the US/NATO countries in northern Sweden and northern Norway as well as in the south of Sweden and in the waters in the Baltic Sea.
On the 15th December 2004 the Swedish parliament passed a decision about Sweden´s adjustment to US/NATO, and the US military´s need for a large training area for their many wars. It was based on a document called Snow, Dark and Cold. A large part of Northern Sweden would be opened up for military forces for training of military vehicles, fighters, weapons and drones. At North European Aerospace Testrange - NEAT, military corporations were invited to test weapons of different kinds and for war exercises. The new type of war with drones needed larger areas for training and development and weapons guided by satellites- like AMRAAM, Advanced Medium-Range, Air-to Air Missile. The area is ideal as it is very long-about as large as the country of Macedonia. In July, 2010, The US Air Force conducted bomb-training for a couple of weeks at NEAT and British Royal Air Force was allowed to train almost the entire year 2011. But already in 2002 Israel had got the permission to train their drones, which later were used in the war on Gaza. Esrange, the worlds biggest downloading station for satellites, not far from the city of Kiruna, is situated within NEAT. Every state or corporation, which are ready to pay, can buy maps from Esrange over any area on the earth . When in South Korea, I came to know, that Esrange serves South Korean Air Force with maps covering North Korean territory. Another example of Esrange´s role in warfare is the following: At a lecture in Kiruna, by Bruce Gagnon, a couple of years ago, about how space is used in modern warfare, one young woman in the public, confessed that she, as a student trainee at Esrange, had questioned the practice of downloading maps over Russian territory. She asked why these maps were sent to receivers in the US. She never got a good explanation, she told us.
Now I will recall how the North of Sweden has been used in a series of wargames in the recent five years:
Nordic Air Meet nr. 1 was conducted in 2007, with 30 fighters from the US, France, Switzerland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. According to the local newspaper Norrländska Socialdemokraten: “The air was filled with fighters for two weeks. This was the beginning of international war maneuvers at a large scale according to the head of F-21, Lars Jäderholm. John B. Kelly, the head of the US Air Forces in Europe, was very impressed by the gigantic Swedish air – room. In an interview in Norrländska Socialdemokraten he admitted: “In Europe it is more and more difficult to exercise because of the civilian air traffic.”
In 2009 it was time for Loyal Arrow- the history´s largest air war exercise in Norrbotten, from June 8th to June 16th. This time the wargame was led from Bodö in northern Norway and cooperated with the airfields in Luleå and Oulu in Finland. The whole Northern area was thus used for wartraining. Peace activists in Ofog rebaptized the wargame to Royal Error. This tells that our government opened up over one third of Sweden´s air, land territorial water to US/NATO. US Air Force nuclear capable fighters F-15 Eagle and F-16 participated and a British Air-craft carrier MS Illustrious made its way up in the Bothnian Bay and anchored outside the harbor of Lulea. This was the first time in history. At the same time from June 6th 42 warships from 12 countries were in waters south of Sweden, Karlskrona in US/NATO marine war maneuver Baltic Operations . This was the largest BALTOPs maneuver so far. Both were aimed at Russia. In our peace group we asked what the Swedish Defence Committee and the Parliament had to say about these events. We discovered that neither the Parliament nor the Swedish Defence Committee had any knowledge of what was planned. It had never been discussed.
Cold response nr. 1
2009 it was time for Cold Response nr.1 , a winter war exercise in Northern Sweden near Abisko, and Northern Norway from February 18th to March 5th including Finnish troops. 9000 soldiers from the US and 9 other NATO countries participated in the marine, air and army war maneuver. This was the first time ever this type of exercise was conducted in this area at the northern border in Abisko. The war training was about how Western Forces should act towards Russia in the Arctic in case there is a conflict about gas and oil reserves. Our small but ambitious peace group stood infront of the Parliament and held a banner telling: NO WAR FOR OIL AND GAS IN THE ARCTIC. US/NATO OUT OF SWEDEN. We handed out leaflets that the conflict over energy resources should be solved by peaceful and diplomatic means.
Cold Response nr.2
In the Middle of March 2012, this year a Norwegian transport plane crashed in the Swedish Mountain Kebnekajse, in the North. 5 young Norwegian on board died. If this terrible accident had not happened we would perhaps never had come to know about the gigantic war maneuver which was taking place in northern Norway and northern Sweden. This was perhaps the largest wargame held in this area since the end of the Cold War. 16.500 soldiers from 15 different countries and of course the US Air Force with nuclear capable warfighters F-15 Eagle and F-16. This 9 days war- game had the name Cold Response nr.2. Different Russian newspapers have commented about cold response nr.2 . Igor Korotchenko in the Magazine National Security: He said: This maneuver is taking place while NATO is increasing its activity in the Arctic. These exercises are a result of the increasing disagreement about the natural resources in the Arctic. By flexing its muscles NATO wants to strengthen its geopolitical and diplomatic power with military might.” ”The maneuver could just as well be held on Canadian territory, said Vladimir Yevseyjev from Central for International Security in Global Economy and International Relations. But instead it is conducted on Swedish and Norwegian territory close to the Russian border. Therefore it is seen as a provocation.”
Nordic Air Meet nr. 2
This war game was conducted from late August to first week of September this year in Norrbotten and Västerbotten with 65 warplane taking part from the US and different NATO countries . And of course with Finland and Sweden participating.
A Nordic mini-NATO created?
There is a rather strong resistance towards joining NATO in both Sweden and Finland according the latest polls. What can be done in order to circumvent these anti-NATO sentiments and in secrecy bring us into this dangerous alliance with nuclear weapons? One way is to drag non-NATO countries into an alliance without mentioning NATO. This was done in 2011 in January 19-20th when British Prime Ministrer Cameron hosted a meeting in London and invited all Nordic Countries including the Baltic states -to consolidate common interests with Nordic Countries. The common interests were about Air Space, Sea Areas, Security in Northern regions, Cyber Security, training of equipments and troops. Interoperability it is called. The reason for this cooperation was said to be the increasing tensions in the Arctic Area. Some analysts say this was one of the steps to drag Sweden and Finland closer into NATO without mentioning NATO.
We have to start to understand these realities and make pressures on the parliamentarians in parties which states in their party- programme that they are against NATO-membership. We have to start a serious debate about these dangerous step by step development.
Many Swedish and Finnish people still believe we are nonaligned and neutral countries. We who see the dangerous development have to work together with other Nordic countries to counter these war preparations and stop it.
Jayantha Dhanapala
| Dear all, I have been at the VIth Russian Congress of Political Science in Moscow from 22-24 November and chaired a session on "International Co-operation in the Arctic region: ecurity and Development issues where I also spoke on 22 November. I attach a copy of my statement. Andrey V. Zagorsky, Aleksander Marchukov and Pavel A. Gudel from Russia, Sverre Lodgaard from Norway and Olafur Hardason of Iceland were the other speakers but I regret I do not have their statements. |