OREANDA-NEWS Russian warships and planes are trying to provoke the British and Dutch military in NATO exercises in the Arctic. This was stated by the head of the Netherlands Marine Operations General Jeff Mcmurtry.

According to this information, Russian warships are showing increasing interest in the maneuvers conducted by the Alliance troops.

"For example, when I practiced the exercises in our program for ballistic missile defense, have you seen many more Russian ships than in the past decades", — said Macmurchy the Telegraph newspaper, adding that the Russian Navy allegedly approached the point of the exercise is much closer than usual.

In his opinion, Russian aircraft also fly very close to NATO ships only to indicate their presence. Therefore, the General believes that such actions can be called "provocation".

Earlier, NATO command reported that during the largest exercises in recent years at the Russian borders it plans to conduct about 20 "experiments". NATO exercises Trident Juncture, which will involve about 50 thousand troops from 30 countries, members of the Alliance and partners, will be held in Norway from October 25 to November 7.

One of the experiments will be the development of the operational deployment of the coordination and command module for the deployment and management of the air force provided by the allied countries.

On Tuesday, Lieutenant General of the Norwegian armed forces rune Jacobsen said at a briefing at NATO that non-Alliance Sweden and Finland will open its airspace for operations in the framework of the exercises Trident Juncture.

He added that the main area of the exercises will be located at a distance of more than a thousand kilometers from the Russian border, and air operations can take place at a distance of 500 kilometers from the border.

In September, the head of the British defense Ministry Gavin Williamson reported that in 2019 in the North of Norway will earn a British military base, there will be placed 800 soldiers. According to him, this will be part of the "strategy to protect the Arctic". He noted that there is activity of Russian submarines in the region.

In August, Russian defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Arctic has become the center of interests of a number of Western countries, not excluding the emergence of military conflicts in the region.