Set during the Cold War, the regulations were aimed at not provoking the Soviet Union, which based its fleet of nuclear submarines on the coast of the Kola Peninsula from the early 1960s. For Norway, in those days the only NATO member in Europe with a direct land border with the USSR, the guiding policy was to balance between deterrence and reassurance. NATO membership is the pillar of deterrence and limited military and allied operations near the eastern border are the reassurance.
“These are decisions Norway takes as a sovereign country,” PM Jonas Gahr Støre answers when asked by the Barents Observer if his government has any plans to lift self-imposed restrictions for NATO flights near the border with Russia.
“I mean Norway’s policy over time, in the way we act, practice, is predictable, serve us, serve the allies, serve stability and security in the north,” Støre states.
Long-term perspective and predictability are “a very important resource for a country like Norway with our geography,” the Prime Minister says and makes clear:
“…. we have no plans to change the pattern that is recognizable to Norway.”
The Barents Observer has previously reported about both U.S. and Swedish air forces making signals intelligence sorties north in Lapland close to the Kola Peninsula following Finland’s entry to NATO. Such flights by the Swedish Korpen plane took place both on February 7 and 8 this week. Last Tuesday, a U.S. Air Force Rivet Joint made a similar sortie to north of Lake Inari.
Unlike Norway, Finland didn’t bring any self-imposed restrictions to the table when joining the North Atlantic alliance in April last year. Läs artikel
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