Norway’s top general says NATO has two to three years to prepare for confrontation with Russia

The head of the Norwegian Armed Forces, General Eirik Kristoffersen, believes that the North Atlantic Alliance’s window of opportunities to prepare for a possible confrontation with Russia has shrunk to two to three years.

Source: European Pravda citing an interview with Bloomberg

Details: Christoffersen noted that NATO had previously given Russia up to ten years to restore its military capabilities, depleted by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Quote: “At one point someone said it’ll take 10 years but I think we’re back to less than 10 years because of the industrial base that is now running in Russia. It will take some time, which gives us a window now for the next two to three years to rebuild our forces, to rebuild our stocks at the same time as we are supporting Ukraine.”

Details: The commander of the Norwegian Armed Forces noted that Russia’s positions near his country’s borders have not changed significantly over the past year, and this allows Oslo to fulfil the requirements for strengthening defence capabilities agreed upon within NATO.

“So we can fulfil those plans and those decisions with content in the next years but we need to speed up. We need to do it in two to three years to make sure that we are ready for whatever might happen,” he stressed.

Several European NATO countries have been raising concerns about the risk of Russian aggression in the near future.

For example, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said in January that the Alliance should prepare for a Russian attack on a NATO country within 5-8 years.

Polish President Andrzej Duda is also concerned that Russia may soon have the military capability to attack NATO as early as 2026-27.

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