Newly enlarged NATO starts drill in Finland, Norway, Sweden in defence of its Nordic turf

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), on March 4, will kick off an exercise to defend its newly expanded Nordic territory when more than 20,000 soldiers from 13 nations take part in drills lasting for nearly two weeks in the northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), on March 4, will kick off an exercise to defend its newly expanded Nordic territory when more than 20,000 soldiers from 13 nations take part in drills lasting for nearly two weeks in the northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden.

“With more than 4,000 Finnish soldiers taking part, the Norway-led Nordic Response 2024 represents the NATO newcomer’s largest ever participation in a foreign exercise,” according to Finland’s military.

“For the first time, Finland will participate as a NATO member nation in exercising collective defence of the alliance's regions,” the Finnish Defence Forces said in a statement.

Finland, which shares a 1,340 km (830-mile) border with Russia, joined NATO in April 2023 in a historic move following decades of military non-alignment. With its bid now ratified by all NATO members, neighbouring Sweden is currently finalising formalities to enter the military alliance as its 32nd member, most likely in March.

For years, the biannual NATO drill, which has been conducted in the Arctic extremes of northern Norway, was called “Cold Response.” However, “thanks to the NATO expansion with Finland and eventually Sweden, we are now expanding the exercise to a Nordic Response,” the Norwegian Armed Forces said on its website. This year, the drill is hosted equally by Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The participating nations in the exercise that runs through March 15 are Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United States.