Mark Rutte, NATO’s Secretary General, has described Norway’s prime minister telling the American president that Russia’s submarines in the far north are there to attack the United States, not Norway, according to remarks made on board HMS Prince of Wales in Oslo.
Speaking at the Atlantic Future Forum, Rutte said the North Atlantic is the bridge between the alliance’s two continents and a vital reinforcement route. He said it is worth remembering that the target of Russia’s nuclear submarines leaving the Kola Peninsula would be the east coast of the United States, and not Russia’s immediate neighbours, and that allies work together to make sure they never break out into the North Atlantic.
Addressing Jens Stoltenberg, he called it one of the most stunning moments when Jonas Gahr Støre explained to the American president that the submarines are not there to attack Norway, adding: “They are there to attack the United States, and we prevent them from doing so.”
Rutte said Russia has significantly increased its military activity in the Arctic and High North, reopening Soviet-era deep water ports and testing new weapons, while China seeks access to energy, critical materials and sea lanes in the region. He said seven of the eight Arctic states are now NATO allies and that the launch of Arctic Sentry this year has brought more exercises, more assets and “more eyes on the North every day.”
He welcomed a British general taking over NATO’s Joint Force Command in Norfolk, Virginia, which secures the sea lines of communication across the Atlantic, and praised the carrier strike group led by HMS Prince of Wales as “a group of European allies working together, providing a key capability and securing a vital area in NATO.”
NATO launched Arctic Sentry earlier this year, and a British general took command of the Norfolk headquarters. Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, told the same forum that Norway has been arguing to Washington that defending the waters off northern Norway is homeland defence for America too.
