The United States' participation in Cold Response, an international winter drill held since 2006, has been affected by the tense situation in the Middle East.
The US has pulled 3,000 soldiers from the upcoming Cold Response drill to be held in Norway from 2 March to 18 March, Norway's national broadcaster NRK reported.
Press spokesman at the Armed Forces operational headquarters, Ivar Moen, was reluctant to go into which departments the US is withdrawing from the international biannual exercise held since 2006, but said that Washington's decision was affected by the strained situation in the Middle East. Since Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed in a targeted US drone attack earlier this year, the situation between the two countries has been tense.
Following the US withdrawal, the number of participants in the international winter drill will be reduced to about 16,000, which has been the average participation figure for the exercise in recent years. According to the Norwegian military, America's departure will not affect the course of the exercise, which will go ahead as planned.
“A planning conference will be held next week. There, we will discuss what adjustments we need to make as a result of the Americans reducing their participation”, Moen told the military newspaper Forsvarets Forum, stressing that the number of participants can both increase and decrease.
The exercise takes place in northern Norway from Narvik to Finnmark, but the main part of the drill…