Air Force Secretary Touring Nordic Countries To Preach Anti-Russia U.S. Arctic Strategy

Aug. 27, 2020 (EIRNS)—The Finnish Defense Ministry announced today that U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett is visiting Helsinki, today and tomorrow, as part of a tour of the Nordic countries. During the visit, Barrett and Permanent Secretary of the Defense Ministry Jukka Juusti will discuss defense cooperation between Finland and the United States, said a Defense Ministry press release. Barrett is also expected to inform her host of the U.S. Air Force’s new Arctic Strategy. Barrett’s visit includes Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

The Finnish announcement followed a news report in the Barents Observer on the flight of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 signals intelligence aircraft flying off the cost of Russia’s Kola Peninsula. It flew a racetrack pattern for several hours between the Norwegian border and the entrance to the White Sea, a distance of roughly 300 miles, for several hours. It is not known why it was there, but the presumption is that the Russians were carrying out live fire missile tests. Russian authorities had issued a number of notifications in previous days closing off certain areas to air and maritime traffic, without saying why.