NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg rejected the idea of canceling the exercise, dubbed “Steadfast Noon”.
– If we were to cancel a routine exercise, it would send the wrong signals, Stoltenberg said at a news conference this week.
Russia will also hold a nuclear exercise soon, potentially at the same time as NATO or shortly thereafter, according to NATO sources the AP news agency spoke to.
Adheres to routines
– Russia will also hold its annual exercise, I believe, the week after or shortly after our annual exercise, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace told the press.
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– We don’t want to do things that are outside our routine, he added.
– This is a routine exercise and is about preparation. The NATO meeting is about being ready for anything. This is the alliance’s job: to ensure that our 30 partners are together ready for anything that might happen. And we have to keep working for it.
Veiled threats
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that Russia could use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
It’s “irresponsible and dangerous” rhetoric, Stoltenberg believes.
– Russia knows that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, he said earlier this week.
At the same time, he claims that NATO has seen no change in the disposition of Russian nuclear weapons.
The British intelligence chief also said this week that there is no indication to that effect Russia is considering the use of nuclear weapons.
– What is obvious to me is this: while we probably don’t like, and in many ways hate, the way the Russian military machine and President Putin are waging this war, they remain within the doctrine, even for the nuclear weapons. I hope we will see indications to that effect, if they start going that way, intelligence chief Jeremy Fleming said in an interview.
Annual event
NATO defense ministers gathered this week for a two-day meeting in Brussels. A separate meeting was held on Thursday morning as part of NATO’s so-called Nuclear Planning Group. That too is routine.
Next week’s NATO exercise will test the alliance’s ability to dissuade with nuclear weapons. The exercise takes place at the same time each year and lasts about a week. Combat aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons, surveillance aircraft and tanker aircraft participate.
Fourteen NATO countries participate in the exercise, which was planned before Russia invaded Ukraine.
