After decades of low tensions, the Arctic is back on the front line of NATO’s efforts to combat Russian naval threats to Trans-Atlantic lines of communication. Biggest concern is what moves down deep: the post-Soviet designed 4th generation Yasen-M class submarines.
“We still want low tension in the high north,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt in a speech at the University in Tromsø in May. But, as she underlined, there is before and there is after February 24, 2022. “European security has changed. It could also affect tensions in the High North.”
The rippling effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been an eye-opener for enhanced security architecture in northern Europe, triggering Finland and Sweden to knock on the door for NATO membership. Norway, though, has already for years watched with concern the military build-up on the Kola Peninsula with Russian navy exercises more frequently taking place west of North Cape, in the Norwegian Sea.
The decision to purchase five Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft was taken in March 2017, the same month as Russia launched its first serial production Yasen-M class – the “Kazan” – at the northern shipyard in Severodvinsk. Läs artikel