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If someone had not found the summer hot enough, it would have been enough to pay attention to the news coming from the Baltic and Mediterranean basins: military tensions have developed between a few countries, both north and south. The United States and the EU are also nervous.
The Swedish military has raised its combat readiness to unprecedented levels since the end of the Cold War, by detecting the unusually energetic activity of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea region, the Financial Times reported. Recordings of military vehicles were reported on television in a northern European country as tourists exited caravans towing cars on the island of Gotland in eastern Sweden. In part, the Stockholm government is sending a message to Moscow that it is ready to respond to any military challenge.
Foreign Minister Ann Linde told the Financial Times that the military march had nothing to do with the wave of protests that erupted in Belarus following the controversial results of the presidential elections, in which the Swedish government offered a role. mediator. When the Russian army conducts a major military exercise, we must show that we are prepared to protect the security of the region, he explained.
Growing spending
Sweden has increased its defense spending in recent years after spending less and less on the military in recent decades. In this context, there is increasing Russian military activity in the Baltic region. Gotland is ridiculed as an aircraft carrier in the Baltic Sea for its military role, but real ships around the island, four corvettes, also practice with a Finnish minesweeper.
Also, a plane carrying a US special military unit landed in Gotland these days and Norwegian fighter jets flew US B-52 bombers over the Arctic. All of this provided the background for Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist’s statement that the Stockholm government is not so naive as to ignore Moscow’s maneuvers. At the same time, it is also true that the situation in the region was more tense during the Cold War, and they succeeded.
Debates in half a dozen Mediterranean countries
Germany, as sitting EU president, and Malta, as stakeholders, have asked half a dozen Mediterranean countries to resolve their disputes over the affiliation of certain maritime areas through peaceful negotiations rather than increasing military tensions. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tried to mediate between his Greek and Turkish counterparts after Turkey sent a gas exploration expedition to an area where both Greece and Cyprus are shaping the law.
According to Maas, the countries involved in the matter are playing with fire, which is fueling the conflict between NATO partners. Maltese Chancellor Bartolo sees Evaris the same way. Before the warnings, France mobilized warships and an aircraft carrier in the area, and the Greek government warned that the chances of an accidental outbreak had increased.
Strong air activity
Paris was mainly embroiled in conflict to the west. Ankara intervened in Libya’s civil war under a UN-backed government after agreeing to carry out gas field explorations off the country’s coast. Meanwhile, France, the United Arab Emirates and Russia support the rebel General Khalifa Haftar. The Emirates sent four F-16 fighter jets to Crete, where they practiced with Greek Air Force planes. The Greeks will conduct similar air exercises with Egyptian aircraft, Israel will conduct regular exercises in Greek airspace.
The EU is divided in its action against Ankara because there are many countries that fear that immigration from Turkey could resurface in response to any sanctions. Bartolo hopes that the large gas field discovered in the Black Sea will divert the attention of the Mediterranean Turks, preferring less exploratory gas exploration to the possibility of many conflicts and war tensions.
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