Norway finds Russia an unpredictable neighbour, last weekend, Russia’s Arctic manoeuvres arose a lot of questions. The coastal town of Bodø is situated just inside the Arctic Circle in Norway, and this NATO’s northern gate should be protected from the Russian manoeuvres.
The small north town Bodø in Norway became so-called ‘nerve centre’ of NATO, its northern gate. This place keeps well the Norway’s joint military headquarters, but recent time Russia started to manoeuvre too often in the Northern waters, making Scandinavian countries feel rather nervous despite their purely defensive shields.
Lt Gen Rune Jakobsen said that Norway still remembers the times of The Cold War and the threat of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union:
“We are not in a conflict with Russia, and we have never had a border dispute with them in 1,000 years, but after Ukraine we changed our posture. They are developing new capabilities, especially submarines, very fast. If we leave a vacuum, they will fill it.”
Russia and Norway, he explains, continue to cooperate over coastguard operations, and keep observe as well. In fact, Norway is the only neighbouring country with which Russia has not been to war.
