Norwegian Air Force Lauds Nordic Cooperation Amid Arctic Challenge Drills

As the multinational Arctic Challenge Exercise 2015 (ACE 2015) is currently underway, a Norwegian Air Force spokesperson praised the cooperation between Nordic countries, in a comment to Sputnik on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — ACE 2015, taking place between May 25 and June 5, involves some 100 aircraft from its three Nordic host countries, as well as the United Sates, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

"The Nordic cooperation is deep. With ACE 15 we take the next step to further develop our cooperation with other participating nations in large scale, cost-effective and high quality air power exercise in the unique training area," Maj. Stian Roen said.

Roen added that the Nordic cooperation provided "a cost-effective and high quality opportunity to fighter pilots of all participating nations to develop national capabilities and interoperability."

The five Nordic states — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — have developed several cooperation platforms with the Nordic Council of Ministers, an intergovernmental forum, in operation since 1971.

The same five countries also created the Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO) organization in 2009 in order to boost cooperation in the area of defense.