NATO maneuvers in Scandinavia: Boris Pistorius visits the largest military exercise since the Cold War

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Norwegian soldiers rehearse an emergency near the Russian border.

They are practicing here as part of the NATO maneuvers “Nordic Response,” which means something like “Nordic response.”

The small Norwegian town of Kirkenes is located directly on the Russian border, almost 150 kilometers as the crow flies from Murmansk.

Here, high in the north of NATO's founding member Norway, lies a strategically important point, especially after Finland joined the defense alliance last year.

Boris Pistorius landed in Kirkenes on Wednesday.

The Federal Defense Minister is currently on a trip to Scandinavia to get an idea of ​​the NATO maneuvers in the north.

The Bundeswehr is also there with around 1,500 soldiers.

Boris Pistorius, Federal Minister of Defense

»On the one hand, there is the fact that the world public is of course currently focusing primarily on Ukraine and the Middle East.

On the military threat from Russia as a whole in Europe.

But only at second glance does it become clear that up here in the Arctic, in the Norwegian Sea, the threads, if you will, come together.«

Bjørn Arild Gram, Norwegian Defense Minister

»And of course we know that Russia has significant military capabilities close to our current position.

Not least their submarines, their nuclear forces, so it is always important for Norway to monitor the situation in the far north.

And that works here especially with those doing military service.

A point that the German Defense Minister gratefully takes up.

Boris Pistorius, Federal Minister of Defense

»And for me it was incredibly impressive to see four conscripts here doing their duty for several months without a cell phone, without the Internet and without officers taking responsibility for themselves.

I find that very impressive and it just shows what can be done, and that's also a question that we have to ask ourselves when it comes to compulsory military service in Germany: What do we want conscripts for?"

A total of around 20,000 soldiers from 13 nations are taking part in “Nordic Response”.

These include troops from Sweden, which, like Finland, also decided to join NATO after Russia's attack on Ukraine, but is not yet a member.

The maneuver is part of a whole series of exercises by the alliance called “Steadfast Defender” – translated roughly as “Steadfast Defender”.

It is the largest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War.

A total of around 90,000 soldiers will be mobilized, including around 12,000 from the Bundeswehr.

In Poland, soldiers from many nations are currently practicing joint operations, for example when crossing a river using the Vistula as an example.

The series of exercises should extend over the next five months.