Ten Northern European countries to agree on deterring Russian submarines

The naval partnership agreement will be signed aboard HMS Prince of Wales. Among the priorities is the protection of shipping and underwater infrastructure.

Ten Nordic countries that are part of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) will sign an agreement on naval partnership on November 10. This is reported by the Financial Times.

The document is planned to be signed in Oslo aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales on the eve of the Atlantic Future Forum conference.

The main regions of cooperation have been identified as the North Atlantic, the Arctic and the Baltic Sea.

According to the Chief of the General Staff of the United Kingdom, Richard Knighton, the JEF countries will move from “memorandums of understanding, information exchange and consultations” to practical actions.

“One of the most important tasks is to deter submarines from attacking or threatening shipping in wartime,” he explained, adding that this concerns the security of not only Europe but also the US East Coast.

Knighton noted that London needs to “catch up with our European allies,” especially those who are geographically closer to Russia. He called targeted assassinations, sabotage and cyberattacks real actions of the Russian state, evidence of which is in Europe and to some extent in the UK.

In his assessment, Moscow’s “appetite” for risk “has clearly increased,” and the term “hybrid activity” no longer reflects the seriousness of these actions.

In October, Knighton called on military personnel to prepare for a possible war and warned that political leaders would “very soon” begin a “frank conversation” with citizens about preparing for a conflict with Moscow. In an interview with the FT, he repeated this call: “The stronger we are, the better chance we have of deterring Russia from trying to test our strength.”

The increased presence of European countries in the region is seen as a response to US President Donald Trump’s call for them to take greater responsibility for their own defence, given that important undersea cables run through the region.

Knighton noted that the shift in US foreign policy focus from Europe to the Indo-Pacific began long before the current president came to power and has been going on for “15 years or more.”

The JEF is made up of the UK, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The group has been operating under British leadership since 2014. In December 2023, JEF countries deployed a group of seven ships to patrol areas with vulnerable underwater infrastructure.

Also, the IMO Council previously supported a document initiated by Ukraine on the protection of shipping.