STOCKHOLM, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Sweden on Monday launched its largest military exercise in over two decades, in cooperation with several other countries, prompting criticism that it is a NATO-style exercise and could lead to tension with Russia.
The three-week-long exercise, dubbed Aurora 17, involves a simulated attack from a feigned foreign power. It is carried out in the Stockholm region in eastern Sweden, in Gothenburg on the west coast and on the Baltic island of Gotland, according to the Swedish Armed Forces' website.
Sweden is not a NATO member, but the military alliance's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg told Swedish Television on Sunday that Sweden and NATO's security are closely connected.
"So it is good if we practice together," Stoltenberg said.
While in Aurora 17, the fictitious attacking power bears similarities to Russia, and the latter carries out its own military exercise on the other side of the Baltic Sea, which, several Swedish peace organizations and the Left Party perceived could lead to increased tension in the region of strategic importance.
However, Stoltenberg said the aim of the exercise is not to provoke a conflict or a "new Cold War."
Sweden's Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said Aurora 17 is the country's exercise and not a NATO-initiative. "We have the right to collaborate with other countries without that collaboration being thwarted into something other than what it is," he told local newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
Seven out of eight Swedish parliamentary parties believe that Aurora 17 will strengthen the country's capacity to deal with a potential attack and will deepen its military cooperation with other countries, while the Left Party and peace organizations have warned of a spiraling arms race.
According to Swedish media, more than 19,000 Swedish men and women, and over 40 Swedish civil authorities, are participating in Aurora 17, along with 1,500 military personnel from seven other countries, namely, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Lithuania, Estonia and the United States.
Aurora 17 is estimated to cost nearly 580 million SEK (73 million U.S. dollars), around 220 million SEK (28 million dollars) more than usually spent on military exercises in Sweden, Swedish Television reported.
