NATO performs Northern Forest manoeuvres to welcome Finland to join the Alliance

Nearly 1,000 allied forces from the United States, Britain and Norway, and also from neighbouring Sweden, joined some 6,500 Finnish troops and some 1,000 vehicles for the Northern Forest exercise, Finland’s biggest modern-time land force drill above the Arctic Circle. NATO forces learn how to defend their newest member, Finland, which is hosting its first joint NATO exercise since becoming the 31st member of the Western alliance in April. The addition of Finland doubles the length of the border NATO shares with Russia, which launched a large-scale invasion of another neighbour, Ukraine, in February last year.