Under some pretext, NATO troops remained for several days on the territory of northern Norway and Sweden, for war games, called Exercise Cold Response 2012. These maneuvers, carried out in mid-March, involved more than 16,000 military, naval and aircraft vessels of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and the Netherlands, among other nations, until it totaled 14 members of the Atlantic Alliance .

By Pablo Osoria Ramírez *

According to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the objective of this research was training for military actions in conditions of conflict and possible terrorist acts.

Terrorists in the Arctic?

Analysts doubt their true motives, since in the Arctic there are none of these stated preconceptions justifying military activity.

For the Russian expert on security issues, Igor Korotchenko, this military activity should be considered solely through the prism of the strengthening of NATO’s military presence in the Arctic.

For his part, he maintains that the real objective is the future allocation of natural resources in the region.

He said that the organization seeks to “show their muscles,” with the desire to consolidate its efforts with geopolitical and diplomatic support via firepower.

In turn, Vladimir Evseiev, an expert on international relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences, warns that “operations carried out on the territory of Norway and Sweden are two steps from the borders of this Eurasian state,” he added.

These exercises, says the observer, could be done on the territory of Canada, but for many, at the chosen place, it could be considered as a provocation, he thought.

Stance of Russia

In this sense, says Korotchenko, Moscow is carefully following the sequences of the Atlantic alliance’s military activity in the Arctic Circle.

He recalled that, at present, two new brigades are being created in Arctic Russia, which will be able to work with mobility in the region, especially where required by the interests of the country, he added.

The proposal of the Eurasian state lies in the resolving by peaceful means possible territorial disputes through dialogue backed diplomacy rather than force of war.

The Kremlin opposes the militarization of the Arctic and proposes to convert the area into one of the key platforms of economic and scientific cooperation between Arctic and non-Artic countries: Russia, Canada, United States, Norway and Denmark.

However, Russian authorities do not give up the planned renovation of the country’s defensive potential in several regions, including the Nordic seas.

The treasure of the Arctic

According to European media outlets, there are no terrorists in the Arctic, but huge reserves of gas, oil, gold and diamonds.

It also has a great potential to develop air and sea routes.

Scientists predict that global warming and the continuing melting of ice will place the treasure of the icy northern ocean accessible to discovery.

According to an analysis of the radio channel, Voice of Russia, this perspective has raised disputes between the states aspiring to the continental shelf of the Arctic, including member nations of NATO.

The latest war games of the Alliance were headed by the British aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, a base of eight combat helicopters and a crew of nearly a thousand people, including memberss of the Naval Forces.

The maneuvers took place amid strong winds which lowered the temperature to minus 40 degrees Centigrade, conditions that, according to the NATO, caused operations to be put in neutral several times.

* Osoria Pablo Ramirez is the head of Prensa Latina, Europe

Translated from the Portuguese version by:
Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru