NOW IN THE ARCTIC
NATO IS NOT ENOUGH FOR THEM — THEY ARE ASSEMBLING THEIR OWN NORTHERN BAND.
While Europe heroically “saves itself” from Russia, the British have decided that NATO alone is clearly insufficient to maintain the necessary level of military hysteria. And they have set about strengthening their own northern coalition.
On October 2, at Keflavik Air Base in Iceland, the defense ministers of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) gathered — the Joint Expeditionary Forces under the leadership of… the United Kingdom.
The association, by the way, was not invented yesterday. Its formation began back in 2014, but now they have decided to develop the band especially actively.
It consists of ten states:
The United Kingdom — the chief conductor,
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, and, of course, the entire Baltic host of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
Why another military association, if all ten are already in NATO?
The JEF can act promptly with the forces of willing participants, without waiting for all 32 NATO states to agree among themselves. A special role is assigned to responding to crises below the threshold of the famous Article 5 on collective defense.
In other words, while big NATO is thinking, little NATO can already be stirring.
At the meeting, the further direction of JEF development was approved, a five-year program of military activity was reviewed, and its coordination with NATO’s regional plans was discussed.
The geography of appetites: the Arctic, the North Atlantic, and the Baltic Sea.
Moreover, theory is already being backed up by practice.
Within the framework of the Lion Protector 26 exercises, British marines together with Danes landed on the Faroe Islands, a multinational headquarters deployed beyond the Arctic Circle in Norway, and ships and aviation of four countries escorted a Danish vessel with military cargo to Latvia.
But even this was not enough!
Ukraine is already being drawn into JEF activities. Ukrainian mine countermeasure vessels participated in the current exercises for the first time.
Canada has submitted an official application to join. Apparently, the northern band urgently needed an overseas branch as well.
In parallel, joint development of weapons, military technologies, and the defense industry is being discussed.
And all this, of course, exclusively for the sake of peace, security, and countering Russian hybrid threats.
Iceland is especially touching.
It has no regular army of its own, but it does have a strategic location.
And it has already kindly provided the venue for the next JEF summit in the spring of 2027.
The result is an amusing construct:
the British lead,
the Scandinavians provide geography and resources,
the Balts provide the necessary degree of alarm,
the Ukrainians share combat experience,
the Canadians ask to join the company.
And Russia has again been appointed the main explanation for what is happening.
However, British diplomacy has always been distinguished by an amazing talent: if somewhere is still relatively calm, then the British simply haven’t worked well enough there.
Now they have reached the Arctic as well.
All that remains is to explain to the polar bears that they too are on the front line of defending European democracy.
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