Category Archives: NATO

Fourteen NATO allies along with two NATO partner nations, Finland and Sweden, are currently participating in the exercise Baltic Operations (BALTOPS 22) with over 45 ships, more than 75 aircraft and 7,500 personnel.

This premier maritime-focused annual exercise kicked off from Stockholm, Sweden, on 05 June. It takes place in the Baltic region from June 5-17 and provides a unique training opportunity to strengthen combined response capabilities critical to preserving freedom of navigation and security in the Baltic Sea. This is the 51st iteration of the exercise series, which began in 1972.

Participating nations include Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries will exercise a range of capabilities demonstrating the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. Exercise scenarios include amphibious operations, gunnery, anti-submarine, air defence, mine clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal, unmanned underwater vehicles, and medical response.

BALTOPS 22 takes place in Sweden, and coincides with the 500th anniversary of the Swedish Navy. BALTOPS 22 also features more robust medical response scenarios, specifically during personnel recovery training aboard a submarine. The exercise builds on previous iterations by enhancing the incorporation of the space domain through the NATO Space Center.

Earlier this week the Swedish island of Gotland hosted defence drills as part of BALTOPS 22. Swedish soldiers practiced rapid reinforcement and defence of the island against a simulated enemy, played this year by the United States Marine Corps 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd MEU).

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16 NATO Allies and partners take part in exercise BALTOPS 22 - NATO HQ

Amid the ongoing US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, tensions are rising dangerously between NATO member states Turkey and Greece in the Aegean Sea. The two countries are holding war games aimed at each other, trading accusations of disregarding international treaties, and violating each others borders with jet fighters and warships.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) Ephesus-2022 exercise, held in the Aegean Sea and attended by more than 10,000 military personnel, ended last week. Thirty-seven countries, including the United States and Italy, participated in air, sea and land drills. Held in Seferihisar, only 1.5 kilometers from the nearby Greek island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, the exercise was based on the scenario of a military landing on an island. It was widely treated in Turkish capitalist media as a threat against Greece.

Greek media reported that during Greece's naval exercise Storm 2022, which ended on May 27, Turkey sent two F-16 fighter jets that violated Greek airspace, reaching just two 2.5 nautical miles from the northern port city of Alexandroupoli.

During the Ephesus-2022 exercise, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan accused Greece of arming Aegean Sea islands in violation of international agreements. He warned Athens 'one last time' on this: We invite Greece to stop arming the islands that have non-military status and to act in accordance with international agreements. Im not joking, Im speaking seriously.

Threatening to militarize Turkish islands if necessary to threaten Greece, Erdoan said, We again warn Greece to avoid dreams, statements and actions that will lead to regret, just as they did a century ago, a reference to the Turkish war of independence against the British-backed Greek invasion in 1919-1922.

A week ago, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut avuolu accused Greece of violating its peace treaties with Turkey: But what is another reason for Greece to be aggressive? Greece's violation of the status of the islands given to it in the 1923 Lausanne Treaty and 1947 Paris Treaty under the condition of not arming them [Greek islands in the Aegean Sea], and our raising this violation within the framework of international law.

Cavusoglu added: The sovereignty of the islands will be questioned if Greece does not end its violation. This threat to question Greeces sovereignty over islands it controls amount to a threat to invade them and go to war.

The Greek Foreign Ministry reacted to the Ephesus-2022 exercise and statements by Turkish officials on Twitter, writing, Ankara poses a threat to regional peace and security. On Thursday, Greek government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou dismissed the Turkish claims, calling them Ahistorical claims and baseless myths that can neither challenge nor, let alone, substitute international law and international treaties.

Accusing Erdoan of provocation, Oikonomou threatened, It is clear to everyone that our country has upgraded its geostrategic and geopolitical footprint as well as its deterrent capacity to be able at any time to defend its national sovereignty and sovereign rights.

A century after World War I began in the Balkans, NATO and the bourgeois governments in the region again risk plunging the world into a catastrophic war. In 2020, tensions between Turkey and Greece over natural gas and sea borders in the eastern Mediterranean were defused by EU and especially German mediation. Greek-Turkish talks resumed. However, as the World Socialist Web Site warned, History shows such conflicts cannot be peacefully resolved under capitalism, whether or not a temporary Greek-Turkish peace deal is somehow reached.

The US-NATO war on Russia in Ukraine has now inflamed the Greek-Turkish conflict, turning the Aegean into an undeclared second front in the NATO-Russia war.

The right-wing government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has unabashedly aligned itself on Washingtons moves against Russia. The Greek port of Alexandroupoli in the northern Aegean Sea has been transformed into a major US military base. Alexandroupoli is also being used to deliver weapons to Ukraine and to NATO forces along the border with Ukraine in Romania.

The Turkish bourgeoisie has pursued a cynical, two-faced policy on the NATO war on Russia. On the one hand, it has backed NATOs Ukraine policy, including the far-right coup NATO backed in Kiev in 2014, and armed Kiev with armed Bayraktar TB2 drones. On the other, it has kept diplomatic channels with Russia open, greeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Ankara, and posed certain obstacles to the most aggressive NATO moves targeting Russia.

Ankara closed the Black Sea straits linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea coast of Ukraine and Russia to both NATO and Russian warships, blocking a NATO naval attack on Russia. It also threatened to veto NATOs plans to absorb Sweden and Finland and post NATO troops on Russias northern border with Scandinavia. The Turkish government was not objecting to the war, however, but continuing its long-standing targeting of the Kurdish people: it denounced Sweden and Finland for having ties to Kurdish-nationalist organizations.

Washington responded to this veto threat by inviting Mitsotakis to give a speech denouncing Turkey in the US Congress. During his enthusiastically received speech, Mitsotakis blamed Turkey for the division of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and demanded a halt to US F-16 sales to Turkey. US President Joe Biden also gave Mitsotakis strong support.

Erdoan condemned Mitsotakis' trip, declaring that Mitsotakis no longer exists for him. Erdoan added that he viewed the US-NATO bases in Greece, targeting Russia and growing Chinese economic influence in the region, as a threat to his government, saying, And, most importantly, there are nearly a dozen bases in Greece. Whom does Greece threaten with those bases?

Workers in Greece, Turkey and internationally must be warned: the danger that the conflicts in the Black Sea and the Balkans will escalate uncontrollably into a world war is very great. In the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, prices are spiraling out of control as the financial aristocracy massively increases its wealth. This has provoked strikes and protests internationally, and capitalist governments are all terrified of the international eruption of the class struggle.

In Greece, there have been protests against the arrival of NATO forces, including the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, to threaten Russia. Strikes have also broken out among rail workers against being forced to ship US tanks towards the Ukrainian and Russian borders. This follows a decade of savage austerity imposed by the European Union and both Mitsotakis New Democracy and the pseudo-left SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) governments.

In Turkey, the last year has seen an eruption of health care strikes against the official mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and wildcat strikes in auto, steel, mining, shipbuilding and other industries against the devastating surge in prices. A one-day nationwide strike by over 100,000 doctors in Turkey is set to begin today.

Erdoan and Mitsotakis are nearly at war with each other, but they are united in the attempt to use militarism and nationalism to divide the working class and suppress the growing struggles on both shores of the Aegean Sea. It is impossible to tell where their reckless military adventurism ends, and where their incitement of anti-worker chauvinism begins. The decisive question this poses is unifying workers struggles internationally in a socialist, anti-war movement to bring down these governments and transfer power to the working class.

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NATO-Russia war inflames conflict between Turkey and Greece - WSWS

A shield deters an enemy and signifies resolve. It is also something to hide behind, in order to avoid a fight. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has been used for both purposes by US and European politicians of varying degrees of valour.

But what if the shield is broken or fundamentally flawed? The western powers may be about to find out. Natos summit in Madrid this month is billed as its most consequential, transformative gathering since the cold war era. Expect much self-congratulation over how the 30-country alliance united to protect the free world against Russian aggression. Yet huge question marks remain.

Speaking in Poland in March, Joe Biden, US president and de facto Nato boss, set the tone. He vowed to defend every inch of Nato territory with the full force of our collective power while keeping out of the war. Months later, Biden remains infuriatingly vague about long-term outcomes.

Ben Wallace, the UKs defence secretary, echoed this refrain last week in Iceland. Russias Vladimir Putin may target Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia next, Wallace warned, because, like Ukraine, he does not view them as real countries. But, like Biden, Britain has no discernible plan to ensure that an independent Ukraine survives.

While many allies have stepped up, important European Nato members cower behind an alliance they previously disparaged and neglected. They use it to avoid making costly national commitments to Kyiv that might anger Moscow.

Daydreaming of EU strategic autonomy, Frances Emmanuel Macron prefers talk to action. Germanys Olaf Scholz epitomises dither and delay. Viktor Orbn, Hungarys sanctions-busting prime minister, often seems to bat for the other side.

Cynically self-serving attempts by Turkeys troublemaker president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, to sabotage Finland and Swedens membership applications also undermine a united front.

Jens Stoltenberg, Natos inoffensive secretary general, will struggle to repair these fissures. Poland and other frontline states want a tougher approach, including permanent positioning of additional troops, heavy weapons and planes on Russias borders. In response, Nato officials promise robust and historic decisions.

As for Ukraine, its leadership has all but abandoned hopes of membership, solemnly promised at Natos 2008 Bucharest summit, and has ceased calling for direct military intervention. Of course, we will hear words of support we are very grateful for that, said its foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba. Having previously accused Nato of doing nothing, he does not expect concrete action in Madrid on accession or, for example, Black Sea security.

That last remark referred to the unforgivable, ongoing US-European failure to challenge Moscows illegal blockade of Ukraines ports, which is creating global food shortages.

Its one of many areas where Nato could and should be exerting greater pressure on Russian forces, so helping persuade Putin to end his genocidal war.

Why is Nato not doing more? Taken together, all the rationales and excuses for passivity and inaction produce a picture of an alliance significantly less united, powerful and organised than its admirers pretend.

Initially backing Ukraine, albeit at arms length, gave Nato a boost. Its stock rose from the low-point of last years Afghan withdrawal debacle.

But if, as expected, the war grinds on, if both sides grow desperate, if the diplomatic impasse deepens, and if the threat of wider conflict rises, Natos long unaddressed weaknesses and vulnerabilities will become both more obvious and more hazardous for those crouching behind its battlements. Its post-Soviet bluff may finally be called.

It would be unrealistic to expect seamless political unanimity in so large an organisation. But the fact that each member has an equal say when, in terms of military capacity, they are absurdly unequal, hinders swift, bold decision-making. A Russian nuclear or chemical provocation, for example, would be likely to produce a paralysing cacophony of conflicting voices within Nato and Putin surely knows it.

At the same time, there is huge over-reliance on the US, a military superpower without whose agreement nothing happens and behind whose might the laggards lurk, refusing to pay their way.

Organisationally and militarily, too, Nato is all over the place. It has three joint command headquarters in Italy, the Netherlands and the US. But its top general is based in Belgium. Inter-operability of different countries weapons systems is lacking, as are joint training exercises, arms procurement and intelligence-sharing.

Nato is also increasingly overstretched, caught between a Russian threat in the Euro-Atlantic area and challenges in the Indo-Pacific from an aggressively expansionist China.

Leaders from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand are expected in Madrid. Their shared nightmare: a no limits totalitarian Sino-Russian global axis with echoes of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact.

Nato is due to publish its 10-yearly strategic concept on how to deal with all this, plus trans-national terrorism, destabilising climate change, cyber warfare and the rise of anti-democratic states. Its a tall order.

Overdue, too, is the Biden administrations new Asia-focused national security strategy, which had to be hastily recalibrated following the Ukraine invasion.

Yet if it is to move forward effectively on these numerous fronts, Nato must also look back, admit past mistakes and accept some responsibility for the current crisis.

By keeping Ukraine in membership limbo while failing to punish Putin for war crimes in Chechnya and Syria, his 2008 attack on Georgia, his annexation of Crimea and his post-2014 Donbas proxy war, complacent western leaders unwittingly paved the way for todays catastrophe.

After the Soviet collapse in 1991, Nato dropped the ball. Like football fans invading the pitch before the final whistle, they thought it was all over! But it wasnt, and it isnt.

Right now, Putin is battering the shield, putting the west to the test. If its risk-averse approach does not change, there may soon be nowhere left to hide. Will Nato fail again?

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Behind Natos defensive shield lies weakness and division. Ukraine will pay the price - The Guardian

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman departed from its homeport at Norfolk to the European theater. The ship will serve as the flagship for Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) while carrying out freedom of navigation exercises and participating in multiple exercises with allies in the region, according to a U.S. Navy statement.

The ship already completed what the U.S. Navy called a surge deployment from February to April while operating with NATO Allies in the Eastern Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic Sea under commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet.

The U.S. Navy explained that the USS Forrest Sherman will be working along with the ships of other navies, including Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

The Sailors aboard Forrest Sherman are incredibly talented and resilient, Cmdr. Greg Page, commanding officer of USS Forrest Sherman, said. Their unwavering commitment to the mission helps ensure that our nations maritime presence remains strong. This year has presented multiple opportunities for the Forrest Sherman crew to become proficient operating with our allies and partners. As the flagship for SNMG2, I am excited to continue to work with NATO and demonstrate our professionalism, capabilities and resolve to the world.

The Forrest Sherman team is ready to respond throughout the region in service of our maritime interests, said Rear Adm. Scott Sciretta, prospective commander, SNMG2. In the days ahead we will strengthen our relationships with like-minded allies and partners. We look forward to strengthening the alliance and conducting operations that will challenge us and make us stronger than ever. NATO is capable now, ready for tomorrow and adapting for the future.

After reporting for duty, the ship will conduct a range of maritime activities in support of NATO allies and European Partners.

The USS Forrest Shermans deployment to the European theater comes at a particularly fraught time for the continent. With war continuing to rage in Ukraine and both Sweden and Finland applying for membership with the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, the situation is tense.

The Finns and Swedes decision to apply for NATO membership flies in the face of nearly eighty years of carefully measured neutrality, which is understandable given the countrys very close proximity to Russia. Now, however, it is clear that a policy of neutrality is no longer possible but that both Helsinki and Stockholm must apply for NATO membership if they are to remain safe and secure.

Though a single Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is hardly enough to drastically alter the balance of power in Europe, its presence comes as a reassurance to European allies.

Caleb Larson is a multimedia journalist and defense writer with the National Interest. A graduate of UCLA, he also holds a Master of Public Policy and lives in Berlin. He covers the intersection of conflict, security, and technology, focusing on American foreign policy, European security, and German society for both print and radio. Follow him on Twitter @calebmlarson

Image: Flickr/U.S. Navy.

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U.S. Destroyer Headed to Europe for NATO Exercises Amidst Ukraine War - The National Interest Online

Last week, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Adam Abdel Mawla warned that Somalia was on the brink of a deadly famine that could kill hundreds of thousands. He said that 213,000 people face starvation by next September as global food prices hover near record highs and drought worsens.

The price of imported foodstuffs in Somalia has reached record levels, jumping by up to 160 percent. The price of a kilo of rice has more than doubled, rising from $0.75 to $2, while three litres of cooking oil has gone from $4.50 to $9.50, making it impossible for people in one of the worlds poorest countriesits GDP is just $7 billion, and more than 70 percent of the population live on less than $1.90 a dayto feed themselves and their families.

Mawla said that some 7.1 million of the countrys 16 million population face catastrophic levels of food insecurity and disease. Nearly one third of the countrys population are hungry. About 1.5 million children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition. At least 448 children have died since January. Many more are malnourished, with scaly skin and hair that has lost its natural colour, while others are sick with illnesses such as measles and cholera.

These appalling numbers are nearly three times the levels expected just two months ago, according to a joint statement issued by the various UN humanitarian agencies: the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

This latest disaster to affect the war-torn country comes 11 years after the famine of 2011 fuelled by soaring food prices in 2008 that killed around 250,000 people in Somalia, half of whom were children under the age of six. Now once again, the Somali people are the collateral damage of the crisis of the global economic system.

Skyrocketing food, fertiliser and fuel prices have been driven by the billions of dollars poured into the worlds stock markets, the failure of governments around the world to pursue a coronavirus elimination policy and thereby prolonging the pandemic and disrupting food supply chains, and the US/NATO sanctions on Russia that have included banning the country from the SWIFT money transfer system.

As the US Federal Reserve and other central banks raise interest rates to choke off inflation and increase the value of their currencies, investors are moving funds away from the worlds low and middle-income countries, in turn pushing down the value of their currencies and making their imports more expensive, while tighter credit is increasing borrowing costs for heavily indebted governments.

At the same time, financial speculation is driving food prices ever higher, with a Lighthouse Reports investigation, The Hunger Profiteers, concluding that in April speculators were responsible for 72 percent of the buying activity on the Paris wheat market, up from 25 percent before the pandemic.

These external pressures have exacerbated the impact of the Horn of Africas extreme weather events, some linked to climate change, that have brought flash floods, cyclones, rising temperatures, a devastating locust infestation and now the worst drought in 40 years. Up to 20 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia face the risk of starvation by the end of this year, according to the World Food Programme. Somalia, which like 14 other African countries imports over half of its food, has been particularly badly affected.

Four consecutive rainy seasons have been dry, amid unprecedentedly high temperatures. When the rains did comeOctober to December 2019 saw the wettest periodthey were torrential and short-lived, causing flooding and breeding swarms of locusts. The drought drove 3.4 million people from their homes in Somalia in search of food as their crops failed and around three million livestockup to 30 percent according to the FAOperished, nothing short of a disaster in a largely pastoral country where families rely on their herds for meat, milk and trade.

A further 850,000 people have been driven from their homes since the beginning of the year, with increasingly desperate families fleeing the drought-stricken areas and making their way on foot or on donkeys to emergency centres, healthcare facilities and camps in towns and cities, including the largest on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, that likewise struggle to afford food.

Somalias 2,400 settlement camps for internal migrants, now home to around one fifth of Somalias population, are overcrowded and chronically short of resources, with many residents living in makeshift shelters consisting of just plastic sheeting and poles. More than a few are on the point of death.

Climate experts expect that this October to Decembers rainy season may well fail, pushing the drought into 2023. It means that with supply routes cut and local harvests wiped out by the drought, there is simply no prospect of affordable food and other basic commodities.

The drought follows decades of conflict that started in 1992 after the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre when the US intervened, under the pretext of protecting United Nations aid workers, to establish US control over the region after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Somalia occupies a strategic position straddling both the Indian Ocean and the entrance to the Red Sea through which around $700 billion in maritime shipping passes every year, encompassing nearly all trade between Europe and Asia, including from Washingtons arch-rival China. While the US was forced to withdraw after the Black Hawk Down incident in 1993, it continued its operations covertly through proxies.

In 2007, Washington resumed its military operations after the emergence of the Al-Shabab movement that now controls much of the southern part of the country, and since then has launched repeated airstrikes, including targeted drone strikes and missiles launched from naval ships, alongside special forces raids. Last month, President Biden approved the deployment of nearly 500 US troops in Somalia.

US operations have served only to intensify the conflict, compound the suffering of the Somali people and decimate the financial resources of its barely functioning, corrupt government. The newly installed regime, headed by Washingtons man in Mogadishu President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has no political or popular legitimacy. Heavily indebted and beholden to the International Monetary Fund, it struggles to pay its workers on time and has no plans to manage the crisis.

Despite the gravity of the crisis, the US, other major powers and financial institutions have ignored the UNs humanitarian appeal as they turn their attention and resources to the war in Ukraine. They have pledged only about 18 percent of the $1.46 billion needed for the Somali people, forcing the UN to cut its rations to those in dire need of aid. The amount needed pales into insignificance beside the imperialists expenditure on war and militarism that they like to justify in the name of humanitarianism. The US Pentagon alone spends more in one week than the amount sought by the UN agencies for Somalia.

So great is the threat of hunger, not just in Somalia and the Horn but across Africa, that President Macky Sall of Senegal, the head of the African Union, called for the lifting of restrictions on exports of Russian wheat and fertilizer.Speaking at a joint press conference in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Sall said that Western sanctions on Russia had compounded Africas lack of access to grain.

While the UNs General Assembly voted in March to condemn Russias invasion of Ukraine, the African continent was far less supportive of the US/NATO position: only 28 of Africas 54 countries supported the resolution, while 17 abstained, eight failed to vote and one voted against the resolution, reflecting Russias longstanding ties to many African countries, its position as Africas largest supplier of arms and their efforts to evade the suffocating clutches of the imperialist powers.

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Somalia pushed closer to famine by US/NATO sanctions on Russia, international speculation and drought - WSWS

JAKOBSELV, Norway Pvt. Magnus Vikan Trettenes is staring out across the ocean, perched on a rocky outcrop far above the Arctic Circle.

With the Barents Sea stretching out to the horizon, a traveller arriving here might feel theyve reached the end of the world, but this is the razors edge of NATO.

Trettenes, 20, is one of four soldiers guarding the desolate final stretch of the 120-mile-long Norwegian-Russian border.

We sat here in this tower the day Russia invaded Ukraine, he says, looking out across the river that separates East from West. The dream scenario would be that nothing happens, but in times like these, theres no room for slacking on the job.

Trettenes is a conscript in the Norwegian armed forces, a member of the vaunted Sr Varanger Battalion defending NATOs northern flank.

Aside from the waves crashing on the sandy beach below, its calm at the border today. But the tension here is rising. The invasion of Ukraine has left all of Russias neighbours wondering what trouble the Kremlin will decide to stir up next. The prospect of a European war feels like a reality here now.

On the day the war began, I didn't look at the videos, says Marit sttun, 23, leader of the battalions Quick Reaction Unit. It was too close. I was too aware of what I would face if they came over the border here.

Soldiers like sttun are the eyes and ears of NATO.

Her job here is both simple and infinitely complex. Should a military threat arise, sttun would need to mobilise her troops and meet it in under five minutes, battling the clock in a treacherous land of ice bogs and subzero temperatures, where skis are the primary form of transport and nature is out to get you.

It may seem odd that sttun is defending this barren tundra. But make no mistake: Control of the Arctic is of vital strategic importance for the Kremlin.

Much of Russias oil and gas production sits within the Arctic Circle, and about 20 percent of Russian exports are generated here. As global warming thaws the ice, sea trade routes are beginning to open up too. Controlling these may give Russia influence over global commerce in decades to come, and the invasion of Ukraine has shown just how far Vladimir Putin is willing to go to achieve his strategic goals. Not since the Cold War has Arctic security been such a high priority for NATO.

Norway isnt the only treaty member with an Arctic presence the US, Canada, Denmark and Iceland all have control over northern waters but it is the only one sharing a land border with Russia. That puts this Scandinavian nation in a difficult position. Here, unlike in the US or Britain, Russia is not a distant bogeyman but an ever-present danger. The notorious Russian security service the FSB the main successor to the Soviet Unions KGB staffs the border towers just over the Jakobselv river; a constant reminder of the nature of this violent and unpredictable neighbour.

As the conflict in Ukraine has dragged on, once positive relations between Russia and Norway have deteriorated. The geopolitical fault lines in the Arctic are deepening, and the role of conscripts like sttun and Trettenes is more important than ever.

As a founding member of NATO, Norway has long carried the heavy weight of Arctic security on its shoulders. But soon, it wont be alone: After decades of military non-alignment, Sweden and Finland could be poised to become part of the alliance.

The countries submitted joint membership applications in May. Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin said the move was an act of peace", while Swedish leader Magdalena Andersson said, with a characteristic lack of bombast, that the country was "leaving one era and beginning another.

But the shift in policy cannot be overstated. If the bids are successful and NATO member Turkey has said it will veto them because of what it sees as their support for Kurdish groups it will mark the most significant geopolitical realignment in the region since the Iron Curtain came down 30 years ago.

Finland has an 830-mile border with Russia, and it was invaded by the Soviet Union in the 1940s. But despite a difficult history, polls have shown consistent opposition to NATO membership in the Finnish population. That changed when Vladimir Putin rolled tanks into Ukraine.

I think theres this sense that the eastern bear has shown its face, says Charly Salonius-Pasternak, lead researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. As the president [of Finland] said, the masks are off now.

You have a young generation of Finns who didn't have this personal connection to World War II, but now they've seen [the invasion of Ukraine] and they realize this is what the Russians could do and that Finns just need to prepare and prepare and prepare.

While Sweden shares no border with Russia, it has been at pains to avoid conflict with the Kremlin. The country has remained neutral for more than 200 years, and the change in attitude marks a momentous shift.

The fact that both Sweden and Finland are on track to join the alliance is perhaps the greatest irony of Putins assault on Ukraine. The man who has repeatedly warned against NATO expansion has inspired it.

But who could be surprised by the Nordic change of heart?

Both Sweden and Finland are Davids to the Kremlins Goliath, and as evidence of Russian atrocities in Ukraine have come to light, fear and loathing for Putins war machine has grown.

It was very predictable; the Russian army even has a culture of violence against its own people, says Pekka Toveri, former chief intelligence officer for the Finnish Army.

That has happened in every fucking war that [Russia] has done. Its always been war crimes, rapes, looting. In the Chechnyan wars, in Georgia.

Its amazing how stupid the Russians can be not understanding that this creates a huge reaction in the Western government against them.

Many defence experts have predicted that Finland and Sweden may officially join the organisation during this years NATO conference, taking place in Madrid at the end of July.

But this is by no means a done deal as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has opposed ratification of these potential member states. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Ankara will come around, but behind closed doors NATO officials have said that their applications could take up to a year.

During that time, Sweden and Finland will remain exposed.

Putin has made ominous warnings against both countries following their bids. As a show of support, a number of Western nations, including the US and the UK, have promised to step in should the Kremlin decide to start yet another war.

But with most of his troops tied up in Ukraine, another invasion may be a bridge too far, even for Putin.

Russia has proved to be amateurish when it comes to conventional warfare, says Kjell Inge Bjerga, director of the Norwegian Institute for Defense. It's not likely at all that we see some kind of conventional attack on the Nordic countries.

But this will make them more focused on developing their hybrid and cyber toolbox, and we are already in the midst of a hybrid war.

Bjerga says that such hybrid attacks could see Russia attempt more large-scale hacks of Nordic computer systems, airspace violations or increased radio jamming in the Arctic.

Of course, even if the Kremlin did decide to strike out with conventional military force against its neighbor, Toveri says the Finns would be ready:

We have this total defence concept, he says. We have general conscription all males are required to serve and civil society is prepared for a crisis too.

In Finland if you build a block of flats, youre legally required to have a [bomb] shelter in the basement. Bridges are built so that they are easy to rig with explosives, so Finnish engineers can blow them up.

Finland doesnt have a defence force; Finland is a defence force.

Sweden boasts an impressive airforce and financial muscle. Strategically, the Swedish island of Gotland is also a huge boon for Baltic defence. Should a conflict with Russia ever arise, the alliance could use it as a staging point for air and naval forces.

On the Russian border itself, the battle-ready Finns can field almost a million reservists, and figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show that the country already spends more per capita on its military than any other in the EU. While that still doesn't amount to the 2 percent of GDP technically required of NATO members, both Sweden and Finland say they will build up to this in the coming years.

Bjerga, of the Norwegian Institute for Defence, says that if and when these Nordic nations join forces with Norway, they will form a bulwark against future aggression.

Norway takes care of the navy, Sweden has the air force, Finland has the army. From Moscow this is close to a catastrophe. Because you have a very strong NATO complement close to the border.

All three nations are set to increase military spending, and in Norway, that money will flow toward the Arctic. In March, its government announced hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending, for frigates, corvettes and subs to defend the northern sea passage. The border guard will see a marked increase too.

The defence establishment in Norway is definitely worried. says Bjerga, at his office in Oslos Akershus Fortress, a 13th-century castle, parts of which are still used by defence authorities. They started to worry in Georgia in 2008 and more so after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Defence spending has increased by 30 percent since 2015. Parliament bought the argument about a much more dangerous Russia [even before the invasion of Ukraine].

Of course we have this government line in which they tell the public that there is no tension in the High North.

Norway has long walked a diplomatic tightrope with the Kremlin. While inviting NATO forces into its Arctic seas, Norway has secured deals with Russia on everything from fishing to environmental policy. For years it has tried, and arguably succeeded, to fly under the radar.

But Eivind Vad Petersson, state secretary of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, told VICE World News that the days of working closely with Russia are largely over: Norway built a broad, practical cooperation with Russia through 30 years. Continuing this is impossible. We have reduced our cooperation to a minimum and are facing an uncertain future.

While the national conversation in Norway has shifted, the story isnt so simple in the border regions.

A keystone of the Norwegian policy on Russia has been its people-to-people strategy. The country has poured cash into schemes that promote better relations through trade, sports and cultural exchange.

Nowhere in Norway is this policy more important than in Kirkenes, a northern settlement that sits just 10 miles from the Russian border across from its twin city of Nickel. Out of around 3,500 Kirkenes residents, more than 400 are Russian citizens. Street signs in the town are written in Cyrillic, and the decks of local fishing trawlers ring out with voices from Murmansk, just three hours down the road.

People here played sports with Russians, or married them. Others drove over the border just to fill up their cars with cheap Russian petrol. Now, due to sanctions, that border is closed.

Many in the town have mixed feelings about it. When asked about the invasion of Ukraine, some here shrugged their shoulders and said they werent political or that they didnt like talking about it.

Dragging on a cigarette outside the only pub in town, Je Jorstad said he was unimpressed with restrictions: We always had a common border here, since the Viking times, and well have to deal with them after [the war] anyway.

Jorstad said since the crossing shut, Norwegians didnt have any input on their Russian neighbours who would now hear only lies about the war from Putins propaganda machine.

Thats the problem today, he added. Everything is treated like its black and white. But real life is in colour. And if you dont talk to people, history is going to repeat itself.

However, it seems some of the propaganda Jorstad complained about is seeping over the border into Norway itself.

In addition to its sizable Russian population, northern Norway is also home to a minority of Ukrainian citizens. One of them, Nataliia Kolesnik, 45, moved to the town of Neiden three years ago from Kyiv.

Having found a steady job as a receptionist, she counted herself lucky, but when the war began, she started to receive abusive messages from a Russian woman living in Norway.

I thought she was my close friend, Kolesnik said. But when the war began, she was writing to me drunk, saying, Your President [Zelenskyy] is a Nazi.

Her husband is Norwegian and he wrote to me too. Things like Ukraine, bye-bye and Russia will win. Many people here watch Russian TV. They think the war is Americas fault.

Kolesnik is originally from the Donetsk region of Ukraine, an area now largely under Russian control. Over the course of an hour, she told me that a close friend back home had recently had her leg blown off in a bombing raid, and that her childhood school had been levelled.

For the most part, Kolesnik told these horrific tales with a steady gaze. But her voice trembled when she spoke of her family.

I am calm because my daughter is here, she says. She came 10 days before the war started, just to visit, along with my brother's daughter. Now theyve been here for three months. They have an apartment, and some money. But they want to go home.

After speaking of the challenges shed faced since the war, Kolesnik said she was surprised that some people shed met in Norway were taken in by Kremin misinformation. She had watched several Russian news reports and was unimpressed.

They even showed a Molotov cocktail made from a plastic bottle. Its easy to see that its stupid. It's propaganda. Its wrong information. Just cinema, you know?

Strangely, perhaps, Kolesniks experience had not diminished her opinion of Russians in general. She even hoped to patch things up with her abusive neighbor. Like many things here, the situation was more complicated than it first appeared. As we wrapped up our conversation, we were interrupted by a group of her friends. All were Russian and all spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine.

In the Kirkenes church the next day, Matvey Schetnev was rigging up lights below the altar. The 21-year-old Russian was spending his Sunday setting the stage for a concert.

It's for a charity gig for Ukraine, he said. I look at the war like a Norwegian, not as a Russian.

Schetnev had moved to Norway a few years before and still has friends and family in Russia.

For me its difficult now to hold contact with my family over the border. We try not to speak about [the war] because you don't want to argue and fight over that. You understand that you can't be friends with them if they are thinking that way.

Schetnev said any support of the war was the result of Russian media and that the older generation were more likely to be taken in by it.

Many Russian people here have Russian TV; they have the exact same channels. I think that's frustrating. How can you live here for more than one year and still believe the Russian version?

The divisions have been stoked by the local Russian consul. On the day of Victory Day celebrations in Moscow last month, its leader held his own event in Kirkenes. As traditional pepper cakes were handed out, he spoke to a small crowd.

The consul said it was very sad that in the West you could now see a rehabilitation of Nazi criminals and Nazi history, recalled local resident Brd Ramberg, 49.

Some of these local Russians living in Norway were moved to tears about how much the Soviet Union sacrificed in WWII and said how sad it is that they had to go and fight fascism today. Its surreal to me.

When the war in Ukraine began, Ramberg started a campaign to get Cyrillic signs taken down in the town, but he didnt get much support from the community.

I just thought: What can I do as a family man in a tiny town in Norway? What can I do? We have Russian street signs that were put up as an effort to better relations with the border communities in the early 2000s. And I thought, this is a message I dont want my community to send.

When I watch the news from Ukraine, I substitute the village names [with Kirkenes]. Its very personal because I live on the border with this terror state. But I am clearly in the minority, and I dont know why.

The range of Russian opinions in Kirkenes speaks to the complex problem that border towns in Norway, Finland, and other Baltic states face.

Unlike in the UK or US, people in these places deal with their Russian neighbours on a personal level. The face of Russia is not that of Vladimir Putin but of the local fisherman, soccer coach or bartender.

Pikene p Broen is a Norwegian gallery that runs inter-border art projects and offers residency programmes to Russian artists to visit Norway. Since the border closed, the gallery is now running what it calls Quadrenic Rooms to connect digitally with Russian artists and collaborating partners in Murmansk.

Gallery curators Neal Calhoon, 33, from Northern Ireland, and Ingrid Valan, 37, a Kirkenes local, said maintaining cultural links was important for the future of the Arctic region.

The reality is that there are Russians on the other side who are against the war. If we cut all contact, then it's impossible for them to be heard on our side, said Calhoon.

The people-to-people work that we do through art and culture is even more important now, said Ingrid. I don't think it helps any situation to have this Iron Curtain again.

Lars Georg Fordal, director of the Barents Secretariat, which helps fund the gallery, echoed their sentiments. Standing at the empty Russian border crossing, he said that cooperation had helped keep jobs in the area and Kirkenes afloat.

The polar town is losing young people in droves, as they head south toward bigger cities and away from winters where the sun doesnt rise for two months of the year.

But the cross-border soccer matches and ski races his organisation promoted are no longer going ahead. Putting the sanctions to one side, the reality, he said, was that many young Norwegians just didnt want to be associated with the Russians any more.

A few miles from Kirkenes, on the Sr Varanger military base, the concerns of the nearby town fade. The focus here is on the military might of the Kremlin.

Here Sr Varanger Battalion Commander Michael Rozmara, who has spearheaded NATO missions in Georgia, is looking forward to the addition of new Nordic members: We had contributions from Sweden and Finland on that mission, and both have something to give us.

When asked about the change in tone toward Russia, and the caution with which Prime Minister Jonas Gare Stre has approached the Kremlin, Rozmara says he had faith in the Norwegian approach.

We need to put this in perspective: How does a small nation build a relationship with a much larger power? In many aspects, we have succeeded with our relationship with Russia.

Norway has never been to war with Russia, he continues. It could be a war in the future which we thought 6 months ago was highly likely would never happen, he says.

So in a sense. We are leaning a bit more forward than we did 3 months ago. My units motto is Always Ready and now I would say that we are even a little bit more ready.

When asked whether his troops were ready for any future conflict, Rozmara was confident. He has utmost faith in his troops. Norwegian border guards are specially chosen for their mental and physical toughness. Many have been champion skiers and typically around 50 percent of the Norwegian special forces start here in Rozmaras platoon.

Soldiers from Sr Varanger find strange and some would say masochistic ways to pass the time. In the winter, the temperature drops to a consistent minus 30 degrees Celsius, or minus 22 Fahrenheit. But nevertheless, some surf these Arctic waves.

They used to drive out every Saturday to the beach winter or summer, rain or snow and go for a swim, says sttun, the 23-year-old leader of the battalions Quick Reaction Unit.

After the dip they have to hike over plunging cliff lines, and through snow-packed tunnels to get back to their post. Looking down from the Jakobselv border tower once more, the Arctic waters dont look so appealing. Youd have to be pretty bored to brave the beach up here.

Asked if he ever gets tired of the long days and quiet nights, Pvt. Trettenes looks to the horizon and shrugs.

You don't get views like this anywhere else in the world. In my eyes, its the best place to be.

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Beyond the Wall: The NATO Soldiers Guarding the Arctic from Russia - VICE

Tariffs, price caps, export controls, and embargoes can effectively promote democracy globally

Commentary

Democracies are finally figuring out that they need to use their trump cardeconomicsto defend themselves.

The United States and Europe together have double the economic power of China and Russia combined, and could use it more effectively and proactively to put pressure on Moscow and Beijing through tariffs, sanctions, embargoes, export controls, and price caps. Economic pressure could end Russia and Chinas territorial aggression or even democratize these two recalcitrant dictatorships.

A proposal for an economic version of NATO, the Western security alliance, is being advanced by former NATO leaders. Current administrations in the United States, Canada, Italy, and Ukraine support related economic coordination.

If China imposed economic sanctions on Australia or Lithuania, for example, a new alliance focused on leveraging the market power of democracies could hit back as a group with their own embargoes, sanctions, tariffs, and price caps.

Joint economic action would protect smaller with bigger democracies. The economically weakest at the edges of the herd would thus be less vulnerable to getting picked off or influenced.

Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen is calling for the creation of an economic version of the Article 5 mutual defence pledge that defines the transatlantic military alliance in order to thwart commercial coercion by authoritarian states, according to a June 9 article in the Financial Times.

Rasmussen proposed that all democracies should immediately halt Russian oil and gas imports.

This would serve as the first step toward better economic coordination against the worlds worst dictators. However, it may require secondary sanctions against any countries that violate the agreements for short-term gain.

India, for example, has taken advantage of sanctions on Russia, which decreased Russian energy prices relative to the global market price, to negotiate for an approximate 35 percent discount on oil. This finking severely weakens the power of democratic sanctions against Moscow.

An alternate approach is for all democracies to impose a 35 percent tariff on Russian exports, which would keep oil flowing but punish Moscow and deprive it of funds for its military.

Whatever the strategy, a more coordinated approach is needed, according to Rasmussen. He is exactly right.

The United States, Canada, and Ukraine proposed a democratic buyers cartel in May that would impose a price cap or tariff on Russian oil and gas.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghiproposed similar measures and said they could be applied to oil on a global level. Draghi is the former president of the European Central Bank.

The idea is to create a cartel of buyers, or to persuade the big producers, and Opec in particular, to increase production, which is perhaps the preferred path, Draghi told the Times. On both paths, theres a lot of work to do.

A democratic buyers cartel also decreases energy inflation in countries that participate, either by forcing Russia to sell its energy cheaper or by reinvesting tariff revenues in energy infrastructure, renewable energy, or subsidized hydrocarbon extraction, for example.

It could also put pressure on other illiberal dictatorships, in China, Iran, and Venezuela, for example, to liberalize their economies and political systems. It would serve as a counterbalance against OPEC, which is an oil exporters cartel.

Europeans would act in concert to set a lower price than they are currently paying for Russian energy, according to The Washington Post.

The calculus is thatif Europe moves in unisonRussia would be forced to accept the lower price or suffer a collapse in oil revenue. Some experts have suggested that secondary sanctions could be considered for other nations, such as India, that try to undercut the price cap by paying higher prices.

The same buyers cartel could also negotiate Chinas export prices lower to deter its territorial aggression and human rights abuse.

The economic NATO proposal is inspired by Natos Article 5, which states that a military attack on one ally is considered an attack on all, Rasmussen and Ivo Daalder, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, wrote in a report, according to the Times.

The aim is to produce the same deterrence and solidarity in the economic realm among democracies that Nato produces in the security realm. Its time to tell the bullies that if they poke one of us in the eye, well all poke back.

Rasmussen and Daalder are proposing that an economic Article 5 commitment could be implemented through existing structures such as the G7, according to the Times. But Rasmussen and Daalder said other democracies would have to be involved and a standalone organization may have to be set up to manage the new guarantee.

Russia has weaponized its energy exports to Europe in an attemptwhich so far failedto deter NATO involvement in defense of Ukraine. If Russia denies oil and gas exports to Europe this winter, it could cause not only worse energy price inflation, but extensive electricity blackouts. Many European and British electricity-generating power plants rely on gas imports, much of which come from Russia.

Daalder told the Times that sanctions, tariffs, and secondary sanctions would help concentrate supply chains in democracies.

That would alleviate future supply chain risks to European electricity grids.

There are geostrategic interests, Daalder said, that may have to trump economic interests in a way that wasnt probably true in the last 30 years, but needs to be true in the next.

In addition to an economic NATO and democratic buyers cartel, the democracies should coordinate tougher controls on strategic commodity and technology exports to China and Russia.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom), which was active during the Cold War, can serve as models.

The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, which replaced CoCom in 1996, has been less effective.

If Washington broadened CFIUS to include all democracies, it would mean that Beijing could not go to Taiwan, for example, if the United States and Europe denied semiconductor technology to China.

A revival, strengthening, and broadening of the CoCom and CFIUS concepts could stop the export of sensitive technology and strategic materials, including energy and other important commodities, to China and Russia. This would help block them from building the massive economies and militaries required for their territorial expansion.

Germany, as usual, is dragging its feet on any economic measures against Moscow, and the Biden administration is essentially deferring while soft-selling the idea of more coordination.

The world has tried coordination-liteagainst dictators, which didnt work very well. The International Energy Agency (IEA), for example, was founded in 1974 to counter the power of OPEC. But it was ineffective at even mild coordination, for example, of strategic petroleum reserve releases.

The worlds democracies will need more leadership from Washington to coordinate the level of price caps, tariffs, embargoes, and sanctions.

These could and should be adopted at upcoming NATO and G7 summits in Spain and Germany, respectively. But Washington will have to do more than soft-sell the ideas. Countries like Germany and India, which resist economic measures against Moscow, may have to pay a short-term price to follow their long-term interests.

Washington must take the initiativebefore it is too late. That will require real leadership and harder-hitting strategies.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Anders Corr has a bachelor's/master's in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. His latest books are The Concentration of Power: Institutionalization, Hierarchy, and Hegemony (2021) and Great Powers, Grand Strategies: the New Game in the South China Sea" (2018).

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NATO Should Better Coordinate Its Economic Power Against Russia and China - The Epoch Times

A group of US military veterans currently training Ukrainian soldiers said Ukraine needs more NATO weapons to win its war with Russia.

Officers in the Mozart Group toldNewsweek that modern, long-range artillery would help Ukrainian forces fend off the Russian offensive.

The Mozart Group is a cadre of US military veterans helpingtrain Ukrainian soldiers.Established at the start of the Ukraine war by Andrew Milburn, a Marine veteran, the group has been described as the Western counterpoint to Putin's elite Wagner Group.

"It's a bit of a slugfest," Martin Wetterauer, a Marine veteran and the Mozart Group's chief operations officer, told Newsweek from the organization's outpost in Zaporizhzhia.

Wetterauer told the outlet that the Ukrainians were under heavy fire from Russian artillery and said that NATO's artillery systems and aircraft would be essential to help eliminate Russian defense lines in the Donbas region.

Steve K., an operations manager in the group who declined to give Newsweek his full name, agreed with Wetterauer and highlighted the US-made Multiple Launch Rocket System and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System as being vital tools for the Ukrainian war effort.

"They need the artillery, they need rounds," Steve K. told the outlet. "If we do not continue with that supply, they won't be able to hold them back."

Per Newsweek, Wetterauer added that the Ukrainians do not underestimate the Russians' capabilities and expressed confidence in their chances of winning if they received the right equipment.

"If we can increase their skill set, then ultimately over time hopefully they'll get better and more advanced weapon systems," Wetterauer said, per the outlet. "With the fighting spirit that they have, there's no doubt they will turn this war. It's just going to take a while."

Ukraine's forces are currently engaged in a critical fight in the Donbas region, which has come under heavy artillery fire from Russian troops. In June, Ukraine estimated that Russia has 10 to 15 times more artillery than its forces, appealing to the West to send more weapons.

This week, reports emerged thatcases of desertion are growing among Ukrainian forces after they suffered significant losses. A senior US official also told The Washington Postthis week thatRussia will likely gain control of eastern Ukraine within weeks, after doubling down on its military efforts in the Donbas.

However, intelligence from the UK suggests that Russia may soon struggle to produce enough military equipment to fuel a prolonged conflict in Ukraine.

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Military veterans training Ukrainians say NATO weapons needed to win - Business Insider

Wiley of counsel Adam M. Teslik is joined by Matthew C. Klein, Jordan Schneider, and Dr. David Talbot, authors of Foreign Policy article Only a Financial NATO Can Win the Economic War, to take a closer look at the issues facing the international economic order today and their pitch for a Freedom Fund to respond to threats and sustain constructive international trade and economic relations.

What would this proposed alliance look like and what are its potential benefits? What role would it play in Seemore+

What would this proposed alliance look like and what are its potential benefits? What role would it play in responding to developments such as Chinas emergence as a global power and Russias invasion of Ukraine? What does it mean for the future of globalization? Listen as we discuss these questions and more on this episode as part of Wileys 2022 International Trade Series. Seeless-

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Freedom Fund: Looking Towards a Financial NATO | Wiley Rein LLP - JDSupra - JD Supra

Robert Abela will attend an informal dinner on the fringes of a NATO summit this month in Spain, a foreign ministry spokesperson has confirmed.

Russias invasion of Ukraine and potential expansion of the intergovernmental security alliance are expected to top the agenda of the summit in Madrid on June 29-30.

Finland and Sweden have both expressed an interest in joining the military alliance in response to Vladimir Putins decision to invade Ukraine.

Although Malta is not a NATO member, the spokesperson confirmed that the prime minister has been invited to an informal dinner between a number of leaders on the margins of the summit.

Maltas neutrality, as enshrined in the constitution, has over the years seen it shy away from any military alliances.

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Last year, Abela played down calls by the European Commission president for the formation of an EU-wide military force, saying Malta will stick to its neutrality obligations.

Questioned about Abelas trip to Madrid, the foreign ministry spokesperson said the government feels that engagement with international partners is crucial and dialogue remains very important to Malta, within the context allowed for by the constitution.

The peaceful resolution of conflicts and disputes through diplomacyremains the main message that will be relayed, the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Former foreign minister Evarist Bartolo this month proposed a review of Maltas neutrality stance by a group of experts.

He said that, though he does not think Malta should scrap neutrality, the constitutional amendments introduced 35 years ago should be updated.

His successor, Ian Borg has, in turn, said a rewrite of the neutrality clause is not on the governments agenda.

Russias unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has once again cast a spotlight on the countrys policy of avoiding military conflict.

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Sparks flew in parliament last month when Speaker Anlu Farrugia described the invasion as a conflict best solved through diplomacy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pounced on the declaration, saying Russia is the clear aggressor in the ongoing war. We do not have a conflict. We have a war going on. We have bombs, shellings and killings happening, Zelensky hit back.

In a subsequent speech, Abela oscillated between describing the invasion as a conflict and a war.

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Prime Minister will attend an 'informal' dinner on the fringes of NATO summit - Times of Malta