Finland and Sweden offer NATO an edge as rivalry warms in the north
adele-...@rogers.com
Finland and Sweden offer NATO an edge as rivalry warms in the north
https://worldakkam.com/finland-and-sweden-offer-nato-an-edge-as-rivalry-warms-in-the-north/895694/
jasonmarkram Aig 28 2022
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The first surprise for Finnish conscripts and officers participating in NATO-sponsored military exercises in the Arctic this spring was the sudden roar of a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter strike force, right next door. landed in the fields of A well-hidden command post for the Finns.
Second surprise: Communications workers and others inside the Finnish Signal Corps spilled out of their field headquarters and, in the ensuing mock firefight, attacked the Finns’ designated enemy in a NATO exercise and the American specialists. It routed the U.S. Marine Corps, the most prominent member of the Expeditionary Force. .
Finnish camouflage against Arctic snow, shrubs and debris likely prevented the Americans from realizing the command post was there when they landed, Finnish commander Lt. Col. Mikko Kuoka speculated. “For those who doubt it many years from now,” Kuoka, modestly surprised by the outcome of the random skirmish, wrote on the infantry-focused blog that documented the outcome. I did.”
As the exercises made clear, NATO’s addition of Finland and Sweden to — What President Joe Biden calls ‘allies of the high north’ — would provide military and territorial advantages to the Western Defense Alliance.especially so Rapid melting of the Arctic Climate change will awaken a strategic competition at the top of the world.
The alliance would bring two sophisticated militaries and, in the case of Finland, a country with a distinguished tradition of national defense, in contrast to the NATO expansion of the former Soviet states, which required a major boost in the post-Cold War decades. Be. Finland and Sweden are both in a region that is one of Europe’s frontiers and a meeting point with Russia.
Finland defended against a Soviet-Russian invasion on the eve of World War II, relying on snowshoe- and ski-clad fighters, skilled snow and forest camouflage, and weapon-carrying reindeer.
Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine In late February, along with his pointed reminders about the Kremlin’s nuclear arsenal and his repeated invocation of extensive territorial claims dating from the days of the Russian Empire, revitalized current NATO nations and strengthened their collective defenses Welcome new members.
Finland — the Grand Duchy of the Empire until 1917 — and Sweden have abandoned their long-standing national policy of military non-alignment. They have come under NATO’s nuclear and conventional umbrella and have now joined 30 other member states to apply to join a strong mutual defense pact, and an attack on one member state can affect all nations. attack.
Putin has justified his invasion of Western-visible Ukraine as pushing back NATO and the West as they move closer and closer to Russia. NATO, which includes Finland and Sweden, has become Putin’s ultimate condemnation of the war, strengthening defense alliances in strategically important areas, encircling Russia in the Baltic and Arctic waters, and adding that he has a military force of over 800 men. Seeking to stuff his NATO into Russia’s western borders. Miles (1,300 kilometers).
“I spent four years in office trying to persuade Sweden and Finland to join NATO,” former NATO Secretary General Sir George Robertson said this summer. “Vladimir Putin did it in four weeks”
Biden was part of bipartisan US and international cheerleaders for both countries’ candidacy.
In recent years, Russia has “remilitarized the north with advanced nuclear weapons, hypersonic missiles and multiple bases,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this month. “The Russian threat and Russian military buildup mean NATO is increasing its presence in the north.”
Finland and Sweden will bring a lot to the mix.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union quelled Cold War-era fears, both countries reduced their armed forces, cut defense funding and closed bases. As of just five years ago, the entire small Swedish Armed Forces One of Stockholm’s football stadiums critics noted.
But as Putin became more divisive, Sweden moved to reinstate conscription or otherwise rebuild its army. Sweden has a capable navy and a high-tech air force. Like Finland, Sweden has a valuable homegrown defense industry. Sweden is one of the smallest countries in the world to build its own fighter jets.
Finland’s defenses, on the other hand, are legendary.
Fighting alone in what became known as the Winter War in 1939 and 1940, Finland’s small, poorly equipped army was one of the few to survive an all-out Soviet attack while remaining independent. became one of the countries. During the very cold winters, Finnish fighters sometimes wore white bedsheets for camouflage and usually traveled invisibly on foot, snowshoe or ski, losing territory to Russia. drove out the invaders.
The Finns suffered up to 200,000 dead among the invading forces, with an estimated 25,000 Finns lost. Iskander Rehmann says:Fellow of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins.
It helped promote the Finnish national creed, ‘sisu’ or grit. Finnish Winter War veterans were recruited for Winter War training by the U.S. Army, Rehman noted.
Finland’s constitution obliges all citizens to mobilize for national defense. Finland could muster a strong fighting force of 280,000, built on near-universal male conscription and a large, well-trained reserve army with modern artillery, fighter planes and tanks. says.
The United States and NATO may increase their presence in the Baltic and Arctic with the accession of two Scandinavian nations.
“Just look at the map, add Finland and Sweden, and you essentially turn the entire Baltic Sea into a NATO lake,” said the former director of the NATO parliament, with only two small parts of Russia side by side. Zachary Selden said. Defense and Security Committee, currently a national security expert at the University of Florida.
Similarly, Russia will be the only non-NATO member among the countries claiming Arctic territories and the sole non-NATO member of the Atlantic Council, an eight-member international forum created for Arctic affairs. .
Selden predicts that NATO’s presence in the Baltics will grow as a result. Although probably not a permanent base, there will be a new NATO regional command and a rotation of US troops.
Russia sees its military presence in the Arctic as vital to its European strategy, including ballistic missile submarines that give it a second strike capability in any conflict with NATO, analysts say.
The Arctic is warming under climate change much faster than the planet as a whole, and as Arctic ice disappears, competition is opening up for Arctic resources and access.
Russia is building a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, intended to escort future merchant shipping traffic expected to pass through the melting Arctic, calling it “how to create this toll road for transport as,” said former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Sherry Goodman. , now at the Wilson Center for Polar Research and the Center for Climate and Security.
Goodman points to future threats that NATO will need to be able to deal with, such as the kind of shadowy informal forces Russia has used in Crimea, Africa and elsewhere. – Handle Russian nuclear maritime accidents.
Analysts say NATO strategy will increasingly incorporate the strategic advantages Finland and Sweden bring to such scenarios.
Marine Corps Lt. Col. Ryan Gordinier, Quoka’s U.S. counterpart in NATO’s Arctic exercises this spring, said in an email provided through a Marine Corps spokesman that he and his Marines were on foot, wrote that he was “impressed” by the Finnish infantry’s ability to reach positions otherwise unreachable on snowshoes and skis. , and move unnoticed over the snow.
It “paused us” – and perhaps so would a real enemy, Gordinier writes.
___
Associated Press writers Lolita C. Bardot of Washington, Lorne Cooke of Brussels, Carl Ritter of Stockholm and Jari Tanner of Helsinki contributed to this report.
jdsharries jdsharries
The addition of TWO very very competent 'arctic' militaries to NATO's ranks will further highlight Canada's decades-long irresponsible unwillingness to even try to be a 'complete' Arctic nation.
Related: Does anyone know if the NATO Sec Gen, while accompanying JT in Cambridge Bay, met any Canadian Rangers - Canada's 'first line' of Arctic defence? If not, why not?
DH
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