Nato reviving Cold War strategies in event of conflict with Russia - report
MOSCOW - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is planning to include Cold War strategising in its defence plans in the event of a direct confrontation with Russia, Foreign Policy magazine reported, citing sources.
Western officials have also expressed concern over a delay in Sweden’s accession to the alliance as it may hinder defence planning and transformation of the command-and-control structure.
Nato is reviewing its defence plans to be able to defend "every inch" of the bloc's territory in the event of a conflict with Russia, the report said. If Sweden joins the alliance in the near future, the move would facilitate troops transfer to the Baltic flank, the magazine reported.
"It's very important that Sweden is going as quickly as possible on board, because if you look at the map, we really need Sweden so that this whole thing is deep enough, what we are going to defend. It's very important for logistics and everything else. We already know that it's rather difficult to defend the Baltic countries. The same goes for Finland if Sweden is not on board," Harri Ohra-aho, an adviser for intelligence in Finland's Defence Ministry, was quoted as saying by the magazine.
The report also said that Sweden would for the first time join Nato's nuclear planning group and be included in the alliance's ongoing discussions on how to update and combine its conventional and nuclear deterrence against Russia.
Sweden, along with Finland, submitted its Nato application in May 2022, several months after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will meet with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
The officials are expected to discuss Sweden's accession to Nato following Stoltenberg's meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday.
Finland became a member of the alliance in April this year.
Sweden's application is still pending approval from Hungary and Turkey.
Air traffic disruptions
The largest air deployment exercise in Nato's history, involving 25 nations and 250 aircraft this month, will cause minor disruptions to civilian air traffic in Europe, Germany and the US said on Wednesday.
"We anticipate minimal interruptions in the flow of civilian airlines," Michael Loh, director of the US Air National Guard, said in a news conference in Berlin before the German-led Air Defender 2023 drills from June 12-23.
German Air chief Ingo Gerhartz said most of the around 2 000 flights would be undertaken over the North and the Baltic Seas, and that all efforts had been taken to reduce disruptions to civilian air traffic.
He said he hoped to see no cancellations of flights and for any delays to be limited to minutes only.
"If we want to demonstrate that we are ready to defend this country and this alliance, we have to accept this," Gerhartz noted. "You don't get security for free."
Almost 10 000 service members are set to take part in the exercise that will, among other drills, train how to swiftly move air reinforcements to Germany in case of a conflict with Russia.
Due to its location at the centre of Europe, Germany would provide a major logistics hub and staging area for Nato in such a scenario. Even during peace time, it hosts more than 35 000 US troops.
The drills will focus on air bases in Germany, but also involve locations in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The US will send some 100 aircraft to Europe, with its reserve Air National Guard providing most of them.
Gerhartz said he did not expect any increased Russian military activity in response to the drills as they were designed to be defensive.
"We are demonstrating that Nato's territory is a red line and that we are prepared to defend each centimetre of this territory – but we won't undertake any flights towards Kaliningrad," he said.
Meanwhile, Slovakia and Germany have signed a deal under which Berlin will donate two Mantis short-range air defence systems to bolster Slovakia's eastern border with Ukraine, the Slovak Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
The first of the systems will be delivered within weeks, the ministry said, and Slovakia will receive them without charge as part of Nato efforts to boost defences along eastern flank members.
SPUTNIK and REUTERS