NATO conducts naval exercises with Finland and Sweden

NATO kicked off nearly a two-week US-led naval exercise on the Baltic Sea on Sunday with more than 7,000 sailors, airmen and marines from 16 nations, including two aspiring to join the military alliance, Finland and Sweden.

Reported from PBS, that ahead of the naval drill, which involved 45 vessels and 75 aircraft, the top US military official said in Sweden — the host of the BALTOPS 22 exercise — that it was particularly important for NATO to show support to the governments in Helsinki and Stockholm.

"It is important for us, the United States, and the other NATO countries to show solidarity with both Finland and Sweden in this exercise,” US Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saturday during a news conference aboard the large amphibious warship USS Kearsarge, which was moored in central Stockholm.

Milley, speaking with the Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, stressed that the Baltic Sea is a strategically important body of water — "one of the great seaways of the world.”

BALTOPS 22 is scheduled to end in the German port of Kiel on June 17.

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