Great Britain and Norway have signed a defense agreement aimed at "hunting Russian submarines in the North Atlantic", the leaders of the two countries announced on Thursday.
The agreement is intended to help protect important undersea infrastructure - including cables, it says. There have been several stories of suspected sabotage against undersea cables in the North Atlantic area in recent years.
The Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, met with the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, in London on Thursday. Jonas Gahr Støre said that this is a "really important agreement".
- This is about the situation right now. It is about recognizing where Europe stands and what is needed to take care of security for the future, says the Norwegian Prime Minister.
Under the agreement, the British and Norwegian navies will monitor Russian naval activity in the waters near Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom.
The purpose here will be to "defend important infrastructure such as undersea cables and pipes used for vital communications, electricity and gas," says the British Ministry of Defense in a statement. The agreement includes 13 British-built frigates, which Britain and Norway will command in turns.
- In these times of great global instability, where more and more Russian ships are being registered in our waters, we must work with international partners to protect our national security, says Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Russia has been accused by several Western politicians of being behind a so-called hybrid war in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Hybrid war is said to be aimed at creating discord among allied countries through, among other things, sabotage and cyber attacks. In October, the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen (S), warned in a post on Facebook about the danger of hybrid attacks. She did not mention specific Russian attacks, but said that Russia has a desire to create division in our society.
/ritzau/AFP
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
