MURMANSK (Sputnik) — Nearly 10,000 military personnel from the Norwegian Armed Forces, the Royal Air Force, as well as servicemen from the United Kingdom and the United States will take part in the drills, the NRK broadcaster reported, citing Norwegian army spokesman Lt. Col. Ivar Moen.
"These are Norwegian drills, but we have invited the UK and the US servicemen to join them… These military exercises have been announced in advance and they will be held far from Russian borders, so there will be no reason to consider them as a provocation," Moen said, as quoted by the broadcaster.
The drills will start in early March and will last one week, according to the channel.
In 2015, Joint Viking military exercises also took place in Finnmark, but involved half as many servicemen — about 5,000 of military personnel and 400 units of military equipment.
