VLADIVOSTOK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th September, 2022) LADIVLADIVOSTOK (Pakistan Point news / Sputnik - 07th September, 2022) OSTOK, Russia, September 7 (Sputnik), Kirill Krasilnikov - Militarization of the Arctic region is becoming a major issue in the wake of Sweden and Finland joining NATO and the alliance taking a more hostile stance against Russia, Glenn Diesen, a professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"Through the Cold War Scandinavia was an area of peace but this was because Sweden and Finland remained outside of NATO and also, as I mentioned before, Norway was more like 'NATO Lite' because we didn't host foreign troops on our soil, we didn't have too much military activity in the north where we would threaten Russia's northern fleet or provoke Russia along the common border we have. But now we see all of this being reversed," Diesen said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
He noted that Finland used to be the greatest success story when it came to neutrality, but is now on its way to becoming the longest frontline between the alliance and Russia. At the same time, Norway is beginning to host US military bases.
"So, it doesn't look good. Obviously, Russia also has (been) building much more military bases but NATO (is) taking more and more confrontational stance," the expert added.
