Norway’s chief of defense Eirik Kristoffersen has warned that NATO faces a narrow window of just two to three years to reinforce its military readiness before Russia rebuilds the capability to carry out conventional attacks.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, the 55-year-old general cautioned that Russia’s industrial base is rapidly remobilizing, potentially allowing Moscow to reconstitute its forces for warfare against the North Atlantic alliance sooner than some Western officials have estimated.
“At one point someone said it’ll take 10 years but I think we’re back to less than 10 years because of the industrial base that is now running in Russia,” Kristoffersen stated.
He emphasized the urgency for NATO to utilize this critical 2-3 year period to “rebuild our forces, to rebuild our stocks at the same time as we are supporting Ukraine.”
Kristoffersen cited Russia’s public messaging from President Vladimir Putin that he is not interested in war with NATO. However, the Norwegian defense chief made clear that allied military planners cannot afford complacency.
“I see a window now where we can meet the requirements that NATO has agreed on, new command structure, new force structures, the new regional plans,” he said. “So we can fulfill those plans and those decisions with content in the next years but we need to speed up. We need to do it in two to three years to make sure that we are ready for whatever might happen.”
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