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The war games, entitled Steadfast Defender 21, are intended to simulate the response of the 30-nation military organization to an attack directed against one of its members. The exercise will test NATO’s ability to deploy troops from America and keep supply lines open.
In recent years, the United States and its allies have deployed troops and equipment in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to try to convince members of Russia’s neighbors that their partners will help if they are attacked.
Russia’s decision last month to send thousands of troops to the border area with Ukraine has raised concerns for the military alliance, which launched one of its biggest defense spending initiatives since Russian troops annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
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NATO officials insist that the military exercises, involving some 9,000 troops from 20 countries, are not aimed specifically at Russia, but they focus on the Black Sea region, where Russia is accused of blocking the free navigation of ships.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the exercise sent an important message to any potential adversary: ”NATO is ready.”
“NATO is there to defend all of our allies, and this exercise sends a message about our ability to transport large numbers of troops, equipment across the Atlantic, across Europe and also to project maritime power,” Stoltenberg said aboard a British aircraft carrier off the coast. Portugal quoted from The Associated Press, Saturday (29/5/2021).
The ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is the pride of the British Navy. It made its maiden voyage and carried 18 F-35 jets: the first deployment of many 5th generation aircraft aboard an aircraft carrier.
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The ship’s presence, part of a 6-7-month deployment that will take it south past India, through Southeast Asia to the Philippine Sea, is partly aimed at restoring Britain’s tarnished image as a major global power since leaving the European Union.
Adorned with high-tech US jets and flanked by warships from other NATO nations, the carrier strike group also stands as an important symbol of unity as the world’s largest security organization tries to recover from four tumultuous years under the government. Trump.
Stoltenberg will chair the NATO summit in Brussels on June 14 with current US President Joe Biden and his colleagues looking to usher in a new era of trans-Atlantic cooperation, as troops leave the longest-running mission in Afghanistan as tensions with Russia, and China, escalate.
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