Brussels, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) The commander of NATO''s Naples headquarters, James G. Foggo, has ruled out on Tuesday that the military exercises to be carried out in Norway between October 25 and November 7 are directed against any specific country like Russia. Foggo called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drill, called Trident Juncture, 'a very realistic stress test for Alliance members' with the aim of 'field-testing interoperability,' he emphasized.
The maneuvers, in seven counties in central and eastern Norway, as well as in the North Sea and the Baltic - including Iceland and the airspaces of Finland and Sweden - will involve some 45,000 soldiers from 31 states, 10,000 vehicles, 70 ships and 150 aircraft, according to military sources.
The Defence Ministers of the 29 members of NATO met in this city between October 3 and 4 to analyze issues of common interest, among which Russia stood out on several occasions due, according to analysts, to the fact that it is the main justification for the increase in the arms race.
The highest Russian authorities reiterate that their country loves peace and has no aggressive plans as long as foreign policy aims at constructive cooperation; however, they warn that the expansion of the bloc towards its borders undermines stability in Europe and thus again adopts Cold War-era behaviors.
The Stockholm Peace Research Institute estimated NATO's total military spending at 1.686 trillion dollars in 2016, which exceeded 76 percent of global military spending and, he stressed, the figure continues to rise under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.