/ world today news/ Sweden is hosting the exercise “Aurora-23”, which will last until May 11 and will be the largest of all maneuvers held on the territory of Sweden in the last 25 years. They involve 26,000 soldiers from the United States, Great Britain, other NATO countries, including Finland, as well as from Austria and Ukraine.
As Lt. Col. Henrik Larsson of the Swedish Army, who is in charge of planning the exercise, said, the goal is “to increase the overall capacity of the Swedish armed forces to repel an armed attack… and also to prepare for NATO membership”.
On 18 May 2022, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO and thereby renounced their neutral status. However, Turkey opposed the acceptance of these countries into the alliance. Ankara explains its position by the fact that neither Sweden nor Finland supports it in the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Fethullah Gulen Organization (FETO), which are persecuted in Turkey as terrorists.
As a result of negotiations, Finland and Turkey ironed out their differences, after which Finland officially joined NATO on April 4, 2023. However, the dialogue between Stockholm and Ankara has not yet led to success. Although participation in NATO activities actually makes Sweden a member of this military bloc, its official entry into the alliance will be only a formality. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Sweden should join NATO during the alliance’s next summit in July.
The United States has for many years aggressively drawn Sweden and Finland into NATO in an attempt to counter Russia in the Arctic. Both countries participate in the Arctic Council. Russia is now chairing it, it will last until May, but it is not yet clear how the chairmanship will be transferred. There is an assumption that once the chairmanship passes from Russia to someone else, Russia will no longer chair the Arctic Council.
A direct consequence of Sweden joining NATO will be that the kingdom’s armed forces will come under NATO command. As for Finland, its entry into NATO was primarily due to the fact that Karelia was promised to it … “after the collapse of Russia”.
The Chinese factor is beginning to play an increasingly important role in the Arctic. In 2018, China was declared a near-Arctic country. The PRC has already invested significant resources in the Arctic, showing activity in a number of areas, from humanitarian and scientific research to LNG projects. Here is China’s “Polar Silk Road” project.
It is worth noting that China’s policy in the Arctic is multi-vector: it works with all members of the Arctic Council, primarily with its tactical ally Russia, but also with the European Arctic countries and even with the American state of Alaska. China’s presence in the Arctic is gradually expanding.
The main reason for China’s activity in the Arctic is to prepare for the unfolding confrontation with the United States. Melting ice gives China additional opportunities to challenge current international law that restricts commercial and, above all, military navigation opportunities for Chinese ships.
Given the Arctic’s fragile and fundamentally important ecological system for the global climate, shifting the clash between two superpowers to this region could have serious consequences. On the one hand, China is using every opportunity to develop the mineral reserves of the Arctic zone, on the other hand, the Chinese navy will enter the coastal waters of Alaska, Canada and Greenland, forming a new projection of Chinese power from the north.
Sweden’s activation of NATO’s northern flank shows that NATO will throw all available reserves into the upcoming battle for control of the Arctic.
Translation: EU
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