Daily Archives: April 21, 2021

Russian nuclear sub surfaces through Arctic ice (Russian Ministry of Defense)

By Ankur Kundu 04-18-2021 07:32:33

Not all countries regret global warming. Take Russia for example: the country is actively pitching its Northern Sea Route, poised to connect Europe with Asia, as a viable alternative to the Suez Canal for maritime commerce.

However, satellite imagery is also showing a Russian military buildup in Arctic areas recentlyfreed from ice due to global warming. The reason: Russia securing its northern coastline and opening up the Northern Sea Route. The country has amassed considerable military strength in the Arctic, and analysts around the world are watching how this affects the geopolitical balance in the region.

Recently, CNN received satellite imagery by Maxar that detailed Russia's long-running buildup in its Arctic coastline. Along with with underground storage facilities likely to be used for storing the Poseidonnuclear long-range torpedo and other new high-tech weapons, the airfields host bombers and MiG-31BM jets.

NATO and the US have expressed increasing concern in the wake of this buildup, especially after reports were revealed about Russia's troop movements near the Ukrainian border. Speaking to CNN, a senior State Department official said, "There's a military challenge from the Russians in the Arctic. That has implications for the United States and its allies, not least because it creates the capacity to project power up to the North Atlantic."

Norway to host the biggest exercise inside Arctic Circle since the Cold War

The Russian buildup, both in the Arctic and the Ukrainian border, has prompted Norway to plan the biggest exercise inside the Arctic circle since the cold war. Dubbed 'Cold Response 2022,'next years war games will see active participation from Norway's Navy and Air Force. Set to take place in an area where U.S., British and Dutch soldiers frequently drill in Arctic warfare, it's meant to be a show of strength to the Kremlin as much as an exercise.

EU nations and NATO-aligned countries are committing more resources and military training in the region, according to General Eirik Kristoffersen, head of the Norwegian Armed Forces. There is a significantly increased interest among our allies for the north and the Arctic, he told The Barents Observer.

Originally posted here:
NATO Keeps Wary Eye on Russia's Military Buildup in the Arctic - The Maritime Executive

News & Politics

(PAP) ej/md/mf April 21, 2021

Nato has welcomed the deployment of a Polish military force to Turkey, saying it will help support the alliances operations.

The contingent will support Turkey with maritime patrols in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea using Polish M28 'Bryza' aircraft. The mission will also cooperate with Nato maritime groups in the region.

A Nato spokesperson tweeted that the move "demonstrates Nato solidarity in action."

"Maritime patrols will help increase the Alliance's situational awareness in the region & enhance our shared security," Oana Lungescu wrote on Twitter.

Nato allies agreed a package of support measures for Turkey in 2015 in order to assist it in reacting to an unstable security environment. Those measures include increasing the presence of AWACS observation aircraft in the region, intensified maritime patrols in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, intelligence, observation and reconnaissance activities and information exchange.

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Poland sends contingent to Nato mission in Turkey - The First News

Written by Shannon Vavra Apr 19, 2021 | CYBERSCOOP

Member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have banded together in recent days to confront an apparent cyberattack carried out against a NATO members critical infrastructure, according to the alliance.

NATO is also working to battle a stream of disinformation about the attack against island state Berylia that has flooded social media, the alliance said.

While many world leaders have faced off with blended cyber and disinformation operations in recent years, the NATO members in this case are not in fact facing a real threat. NATO crafted the scenario, which was carried out by a fabricated non-NATO nation-state Crimsonia, as part of an annual simulation exercise. Known as Locked Shields, its designed to test leaders readiness to deal with live cyberthreats. Berylia, the target of the fake attack and disinformation, is also an imagined state.

The exercise which had Crimsonia target Berylias financial services sector, mobile networks and water supplies concluded Friday.

While the targets and attackers in the scenario were imagined, the blended operations depicted in the exercise are ones that world leaders have been grappling with for years.

The fabricated Crimsonia actors targeted Berylia citizens with information operations meant to sow seeds of doubt and discord. Thatsan approach that the governments of Iran and Russia used in information operations targeting U.S. citizens during the buildup to the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, according to a recent U.S. intelligence memo.

This year, the exercise featured several new dilemmas for the strategic decision-making element as well, Michael Widmann, the chief of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) Strategy Branch, said in a statement. The cyber domain and information warfare operate hand in hand in the modern environment. Strong strategic communication policies can mitigate the effects of an enemys information warfare campaign.

It was just five years ago that NATO members agreed that a cyberattack on one NATO member state could be interpreted as an attack on all, which would trigger a collective response.

The inspiration to simulate both cyberattacks and information operations simultaneously came in part from the pandemic, during which Russia and China have conducted both cyber-operations and information campaigns to target democracies, NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoaa said.

Russia and China have tried to use the COVID-19 crisis to exploit vulnerabilities, including those in cyberspace, with cyber-enabled disinformation campaigns, designed to sow distrust and division in our democratic societies, Geoaasaid in a statement.

Cyberattacks against critical infrastructure, too, have been top of mind for intelligence communities around the world for years. Just last week the U.S. intelligence community noted in an annual threat analysis that China is capable of causing damage to critical infrastructure in the U.S. and that Russia is known to target critical infrastructure such as underwater cables and industrial control systems.

Participants in the NATO simulation, which was organized by the CCDCOE, included the FBI, Estonias defense ministry, Cisco, Microsoft and the European Defence Agency, among others, according to Estonian World. More than 10 NATO allies participated, according to the alliance.

Its just the latest virtual cyber exercise allied national have convened to test leaders readiness to respond to cyber attacks that hit simultaneously with physical attacks or information operations campaigns. Cyber Command and allies participated in a virtual exercise last year, during which they simulated how they would respond to an attack on a European airbase. In that attack, hackers targeted virtualized industrial control systems.

This was the first time NATO has hosted this cyber exercise virtually. Past iterations of the event were hosted in person in Paris and London in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Originally posted here:
NATO tests its hand defending against blended cyber-disinformation attacks - CyberScoop

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 19

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar completely ruled out the four-nation Quad ever evolving into a NATO-like structure.

Military alliances have never been Indias heritage... The people who use NATO-kind of analogy either dont understand us at all and dont know what our Independence means to us. One explanation I have is complete ignorance and lack of understanding of the Indian mindset, he said at All India Management Associations (AIMA) National Leadership Conclave today.

S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister

Military alliances not Indias heritage

Military alliances have never been Indias heritage... The people who use NATO-kind of analogy either dont understand us at all and dont know what our Independence means to us.

Or these people are using these words deliberately to discourage or dissuade or mislead us from doing what is in our own interest, he said.

Jaishankar suggested a military alliance would be tantamount to abandoning Indias independence of approach. On Quad, he said it was very reasonable in international relations to have countries with convergences and shared interests to work together.

But I wouldnt exaggerate and wrongly create the imagery of a NATO military alliance, cold war etc. That has never been Indias heritage. During the cold war also, we stayed away from NATO, he added. Jaishankars outright rejection of the Quad evolving into an Asian NATO comes at a time when border talks with China and peace talks with Pakistan are stalemated.

Giving an insight into what is discussed at Quad, Jaishankar said the four ministers discussed how to ensure students move around and travel in a Covid environment easily.

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Quad will never be like NATO: External Affairs Minister - The Tribune India

Athens organised the Iniochos 2021 annual multinational military exercise in Andravida base to deepen military cooperation with NATO and Middle Eastern allies. The exercise was joined by fighter jets from the US, France, Israel, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the Andravida base on Tuesday. We cannot be naive. We are facing a new set of threats, Mitsotakis said. Our world is extremely complex and our neighborhood is, unfortunately, becoming more unstable. Greece will continue to strengthen its defense capabilities and upgrade its armed forces, the Greek PM added.

In the light of an escalating crisis with Turkey, Greece is following an 11.5 billion military upgrade program over the next five years. A 2.3 billion order for 18 French Rafale fighter jets and an upgrade of compatible missiles has already taken place while the air force maintains US-made F-16 fighters.

Moreover, Greece and Israel signed a $1.65 billion defense agreement under which Israels Elbit Systems Ltd. will operate a training centre for the Greek air force in a bid to tighten bilateral political and economic relations. The agreement includes the supply of 10 new M-346 training aircraft produced by Italian company Leonardo, as well as the maintenance of the Greek air forces training fleet for a period of 22 years. (Theodore Karaoulanis | EURACTIV.gr)

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Greece seeks military cooperation with NATO and Middle Eastern allies - EURACTIV

Another 14% of those surveyed are convinced this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Photo from UNIAN, Mykhailo

A total of 64% of Ukrainians support the initiative for Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

That's according to a recent surveyrun by the Ukrainian Institute for the Future (UIF) with the assistance of New Image Marketing Group, an UNIAN correspondent reported.

In particular, 43% of respondents fully support Ukraine's accession to NATO, 21% say they "rather support" it.

Read alsoMost Ukrainians positive Ukraine-Russia war ongoing in Donbas pollAt the same time, 7% of respondents "rather oppose" the idea, while 12% fully oppose it.

Oleksandr Shulha, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, has noted that these indicators remain dynamic.

"When tensions risein our country, when Russia deploys its troops, when there'sdirect invasion as it was in 2015, the number of those who believe that Ukraine needs to join NATO increases greatly. During periods of relative calm, the figure falls, but the share of those who believe that it's necessary to join NATO always exceeds the number of those who believe there's no need to join," he explained.

The number of NATO accession supporters has changed dramatically since 2014, when only 15-20% of respondents believed Ukraine needed to join the Alliance, while half of the respondents believed the country should not.

Read alsoZelensky: It's time for proposals for Ukraine to obtain NATO MAP, EU planAt the same time, the survey shows respondents remain rather skeptical about the near-future prospects for joining NATO. Only 7% of respondents are sure this is possible in the near future, up to a year from now, while 28% suggest such rapid accession is possible.

Another 37% of respondents are convinced that joining is possible, but not in the coming years, while 14% believe it is unlikely, and 14% believe Ukraine will never join NATO.

*** The survey was conducted in April. Some 1,148 respondents aged 18 and older were involved in an online survey on an interactive structured questionnaire in all regions except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.

Translation: Yevgeny Matyushenko

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Some 64% of Ukrainians stand for Ukraine's accession to NATO poll - UNIAN

Brussels has been the focus this week of a full court diplomatic offensive by U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken who arrived earlier this week and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin who landed in Belgium Wednesday for his first in-person meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

The main goal of the meetings with NATO and European Union leaders has been to repair transatlantic bonds strained during Donald Trumps tenure in the White House.

There are many issues to be discussed, Stoltenberg said on welcoming Blinken to the Belgian capital, noting appreciatively that Americas top diplomat had been in Europe recently for a gathering of NATO foreign ministers.

The fact that you are back again this month together with Secretary Austin, I think that demonstrates the strong U.S. commitment to NATO, to our transatlantic bond, Stoltenberg added.

But the Biden team is encountering some of the same headwinds that contributed to the straining of Euro-U.S. ties, first during Barack Obamas tenure in the White House, and then to a much greater degree under Trump, who identified Europe as an economic adversary and was querulous about NATOs purpose.

All EU national governments have welcomed President Joe Bidens aim of revitalizing U.S.-European ties. The adversarial language has gone, but Washington is now facing an EU thats turning inward with the bloc focused on protecting its own post-pandemic market and preoccupied about how to stem the coronavirus, analysts say.

And the post-World War II transatlantic consensus is being complicated by splits within the bloc over the best ways to handle the rising power of Communist China and how to manage Russia, they add.

Even before the flurry of diplomatic visits to Brussels this week some analysts were warning of challenges ahead. The rebuilding could well prove more difficult than it first appears, noted recently Steven Pifer, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, a U.S.-based research organization, and former U.S. envoy to Ukraine.

Worries on Russian buildup

But how to handle Russia, which is now piling up troops and military hardware along the eastern Ukraine border, and in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is becoming the most pressing issue facing Western powers.

And it is one that may determine the longer run prospects for Bidens bid to revitalize the transatlantic alliance, some diplomats and analysts believe.

The largely unexplained Russian military buildup is prompting questions about whether the Kremlin is actually plotting another incursion into Ukrainian territory or whether it is taking the measure of Biden and testing the new U.S. president. Russia has told western officials the military buildup is just an exercise, but Kremlin officials have said publicly it is in response to Ukrainian aggression, a claim rejected by Ukrainian officials. The Ukrainians fear whatever Russias intentions the situation is become highly unstable and could easily tip into a full-scale war.

The U.S. and NATO have offered unwavering support to Ukraine and have denounced the buildup as provocative. Secretary of State Blinken said Wednesday, after a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, that he was pleasantly surprised at how all the NATO member states unreservedly condemned the Russian buildup.

What was striking to me was, in the North Atlantic Council meeting, listening to every single ally, all 30 of us, express those concerns and a determination to see Russia take steps to de-escalate the tensions that it is creating, Blinken said at a press conference.

Ukraine wants more

But a nervous Kyiv is looking for more than just words. That was stressed Tuesday by Ukraines foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, after meeting Blinken in Brussels. He told reporters condemnation needed to be supported by actions that will make it very clear for Russia that the price of its aggression against Ukraine will be too heavy for it to bear.

Kuleba added, It is better to act now to prevent Russia from further escalating the situation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will emphasize the same message to French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris Friday, say Ukrainian officials.

Despite the Ukrainians sense of urgency, the Biden administration and its European partners have so far not agreed on clear steps to deter Russia. Some fault a risk-averse and pandemic-preoccupied Europe for this.

While the U.S. has called on Russia to de-escalate, France and Germany have urged both Russia and Ukraine to show restraint. France and Germany are treating the perpetrator and victim of aggression alike, worries Edward Lucas, author of The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West.

In a commentary for the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a non-partisan research group headquartered in Washington, he noted that Frances Macron and Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel recently discussed the Ukraine crisis with Putin over the Ukrainians heads.

"That sends a demoralizing message to the rest of Europe, and an encouraging one to the Kremlin: when things get serious, Berlin and Paris pursue their own interests, not wider ones, he added.

Former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves cautions that the Franco-German overtures risk reinforcing the impression in Moscow of European weakness. He suspects Putins military buildup is an act of intimidation to see how the West responds and he will play it by ear and see how it goes, he said at an event in the U.S. capital.

According to former U.S. envoy Pifer, the big dilemma facing the Biden administration is how to revive the transatlantic security alliance while not letting things get derailed by difficult issues that could divide the allies.

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Ukraine Wants NATOs Action to Match Words on Russia - Voice of America

Women for Afghan Women (WAW) fearfully responds to the US and NATO withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in September.

Women for Afghan Women (WAW), thelargest Afghan womens rights organization in the world,remains deeply concerned about the fate of women and girls in Afghanistan after afull withdrawal of United States (US) and NATO armed forces from Afghanistanin September of 2021.

WAW urges the US government and its NATO allies to employ the full weight of their diplomatic, economic, and political powerduring the months leading up to the withdrawalto ensure the establishment of an inclusive andcomprehensivepolitical settlement, which will fully protectthe Afghan constitution and the rights of all Afghan citizens enshrined therein.

The extraordinary progress of the past two decades was made possible by hundreds of thousands of lives lost and trillions of dollars invested in Afghanistan. To ensure these immeasurable gains and sacrifices are not lost to chaos and tyranny, the US and NATO must coordinate with one another and engage with Afghanistans neighbors to make sure that regional and international stakeholders are politically and financially committed to a peaceful and democratic political process in Afghanistan. This global and regional effort led by the US and NATO also must safeguard the government, civil society, and private sector in Afghanistan against a return to power by armed militias, whose only legacy has been terror and the dark ages of the 1990s, with the most heinous of human rights violations justified by obscene perversions of religious beliefs and cultural traditions.

While we welcome any effort to end military interventions and armed hostilities in Afghanistan, and whole-heartedly long for the day when all Afghans can finally live with peace and dignity, we firmly believe that a lastingpeace must protect the rights of all citizens, particularly those of the Afghan women and girls whobore the brunt oftheTalibans brutalityandthelast forty years of conflict in their homeland.

On behalf of the women and girls that we serve, we implore the US and its allies to ensure their troop disengagement from Afghanistan does notgrant unelected armed militias and warlords more leverage, and leave behind the triumph of tyranny instead of the democratic values of liberty, prosperity, and justice for allshared not only by our allies but by the overwhelming majority of Afghans.

Women for Afghan Women (WAW) is a grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to securing and protecting the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls in Afghanistan and New York, particularly their rights to develop their individual potential, to self-determination, and to be represented in all areas of life: political, social, cultural, and economic. WAW advocates for womens rights and challenges the norms that underpin gender-based violence wherever opportunities arise to influence attitudes and bring about change.

Related:

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Afghan Women in Media and Politics Risk Lives for Equal Rights

COVID-19: The Gendered Impacts and How to Respond

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As US and NATO Withdraw, WAW Fears Plummet in Women's Justice - Philanthropy Women

Greece has vowed to expand military cooperation with traditional NATO allies as well as Middle Eastern powers in a race to modernize its armed forces and face its militarily assertive neighbour Turkey.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited an airbase in southern Greece to attend multinational military exercises joined by fighter jets from the United States, France, Israel, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.

"We cannot be naive. We are facing a new set of threats," Mitsotakis said, speaking in a hangar in front of aircraft taking part in the exercises. "Our world is extremely complex and our neighbourhood is, unfortunately, becoming more unstable. Greece will continue to strengthen its defense capabilities and upgrade its armed forces."

Greece spends more on defense than any other European Union country relative to the size of its economy.

But it announced a major re-armament program last year following a naval stand-off with Turkey over natural gas drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean.

Under pressure from NATO allies, Greece and Turkey resumed diplomatic talks in January to try and ease the tension. Athens, however, is pressing ahead with an accelerated military upgrade program worth 11.5 billion euros over five years.

Greek officials at the weekend signed agreements worth 1.65 billion US dollars with Israel's military and defense contractor Elbit Systems to create a new flight academy near the southern Greek city of Kalamata.

The air force has already begun overhauling its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighters and has placed a 2.3 billion-euro order to buy 18 French-made Rafale fighter jets, some currently in service with the France's military, along with an upgrade of compatible missiles.

(Disclaimer: This story has not been edited by http://www.republicworld.com and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Greece to expand military cooperation with NATO allies - Republic World

opinion

James W. Pfister| The Monroe News

Back in the stable days of the Cold War, in August1983, I was on a comparative legal study (and vodka drinking) tour of the Soviet Union. (We were told by our charming tour guide that vodka was the only way to avoid bacterial illness; we didnt question her).

Traveling in the Soviet Union was an experience of empathy for those of us interested in international politics. Being on the other side of American power, seeing the United States from their eyes, was dramatic, with American power in NATO to the West, a mere 1,200 miles away.

The United States, not being content with being limited to the Western Hemisphere, also had power to the East in the Pacific region. And there, not limiting itself to an island ladder of defense, it asserted itself on the mainland of Asia in Thailand and South Korea, after having spent years in Vietnam.

Sitting in Kiev (Kyiv), Ukraine, we felt surrounded by American power. Today, American power is even closer, inside Ukraine itself! With American pushing, NATO expanded eastward toward the Russian border after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Some of the new states of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union became NATO members. Some were promised future membership. Those not directly part of NATO could become partners.

Ukraine last year sealed deeper ties with the alliance, becoming an enhanced opportunities partner. Wall Street Journal, 4/14/21.

Indeed, America has been triumphant, exercising its power right up to the Russian border. Gen.Colin Powells pottery maxim comes to mind when he was advising President George W. Bush on Iraq II: You break it, you own it. Or, the old adage: Be careful what you wish for; you may actually get it. To wit: Russia, our Great Power adversary, has recently built up its military forces, including Iskander missiles, on the Russian border with Ukraine, the biggest buildup since 2014, when it took Crimea.

On March 24, 2021, our secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave a speech to NATO members in which he reaffirmed the American commitment to NATO and to our partnerships. Recently, on "Meet the Press," the secretary threatened Russia: Speaking for our president, Mr. Blinken said, there will be consequences if Russia uses force against Ukraine. This is a line-drawing threat by one nuclear power to another, about as dangerous as it gets. A miscalculation could be catastrophic.

From a political science, sphere of influence perspective, Ukraine is within the Russian sphere. Lately, the United States has been intruding upon that sphere of influence, and also on the Chinese sphere, regarding Taiwan, potentially threatening world peace.

From a legal standpoint, Ukraine is a sovereign state in international law, which should not be threatened or attacked under Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, and it has under Article 51 the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense, under which NATO was organized. NATO and its members certainly have a legal and a moral right to organize with Ukraine for its defense.

Butis it prudent under the sphere of influence approach to use force to defend Ukraine? One is reminded that Khrushchev in 1962 had a legal right to put offensive weapons in Cuba with Cubas consent, a sovereign state under international law. President John Kennedy saw the situation in political science, sphere of influence termsand brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis to protect our interests regarding Cuba. (Kennedy tried to be legal; he had a legal authorization for the blockade under an Organization of American States authorization).

Butpolitical science trumps law, even morality, when it comes to security in the nuclear age, I believe. When we were sipping our prophylactic vodka cocktails in Kiev, Ukraine, that summer of 1983, we certainly could not have imagined that a nuclear-war threat could occur by an American defense of Ukraine, where we were, from a Russian attack. What dangerous irony.

My professor, Inis Claude, had a concept he called prudential pacifism peace based not on morality, or law, but on prudence between nuclear powers. Prudence should prevail over morality or law here in the case of defending Ukraine on the Russian border.

JamesW.Pfister, J.D. University of Toledo, Ph.D. University of Michigan (political science), retired after 46 years in the Political Science Department at Eastern Michigan University. He lives at Devils Lake and can be reached at jpfister@emich.edu.

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Eastward expansion of NATO and the Ukraine crisis - Monroe Evening News