US brings world’s most powerful aircraft carrier to Norway and escalates tension with Russia

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The USS Gerald R. Ford, the most powerful aircraft carrier in the world, appeared this Wednesday in the fjord of Oslo, the capital of Norway. And it raised tension between the United States and Russia, which immediately raised its voice.

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Norway, a member of NATO since the military organization was founded in 1949, has feared for months the possibility of Russia attacking its hydrocarbon infrastructure in the North Sea (the country’s main economic gateway) and the gas pipelines that connect it with countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom or the Netherlands.

The explosion of the Nordstream gas pipeline last September, which was not officially awarded to anyone despite suspicions that Russia was behind it, put the Norwegians on high alert.

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The visit of the American aircraft carrier, nuclear powered and the most advanced of its fleet, in the midst of Russia’s war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine and as NATO is reinforcing its eastern flank, tensions with Moscow escalate.

But it is a sign of the security commitment of the United States towards the neighboring countries of the Arctic, a region where the interests of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway itself, Denmark (because it controls Greenland) collide, Sweden and Russia. and in which China has an increasing role.

naval exercises

The visit of the USS Gerald R. Ford (named after the former president of the same name, who reigned after the resignation of Richard Nixon between August 1974 and January 1977) is the first to Norway by a US aircraft carrier and shows how NATO from months provides evidence of security guarantees to its member states.

The visit is officially part of a series of naval exercises that will be carried out together with the host Navy along the western and northern coast of the Nordic country.

The Norwegian media ensure that the USS Gerald R. Ford will sail beyond the limits of the Arctic Circle and for the Armed Forces of the country, according to several agency cables, the visit is “an important signal of the close bilateral relations between the United States and Norway and a sign of the credibility of collective defense and deterrence”.

American soldiers aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, en route to the Oslo Fjord in Norway.  Photo: REUTERS

American soldiers aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, en route to the Oslo Fjord in Norway. Photo: REUTERS

Moscow’s reaction

Moscow sees it differently. The Russian Embassy in Oslo sharply criticized the visit. “Considering that it is accepted in Oslo that Russia is not a direct military threat to Norway, this show of power seems illogical and harmful,” he said.

Russian diplomacy also said that the issues under discussion in the northern Arctic “do not require military solutions and there is no issue that requires external intervention”.

Norway has a long land border with Russia and since the start of the war, as Russian gas exports to Europe have decreased, it has increased its own.

The game between the two countries is clear in both these energy exports and control of the Arctic. Norwegian military vessels and those of other NATO countries have spent months monitoring the activities of suspected Russian fishing vessels in the waters of Norway’s exclusive economic zone where hydrocarbon drilling rigs are located.

The visit of the US aircraft carrier to Norway involves alterations of the air and sea space. The Norwegian government has implemented a large area of ​​its airspace that is off-limits to any overflights, as well as a ban on sailing within tens of nautical miles of the USS Gerald R. Ford.

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Source: Clarin

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