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 Around 3,400 foreign troops had been scheduled to take part in the
Rein I and Joint Viking manoeuvres, including just over 1,000 from
the United States and close to 1,000 Britons, Defence Minister Frank
Bakke-Jensen told a news conference.
As the northernmost European member of the NATO alliance, and
sharing a border with Russia, Norway regularly trains its own troops
alongside coalition forces to prepare them for winter warfare.
On Saturday, however, Norway announced a new lockdown of its capital
region, located further to the south, after an outbreak of a more
contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain.
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 "We have to take precautions to
try to prevent the spread of the mutated variant
of the virus," Bakke-Jensen said.
Although as many as 2,900 foreign troops had
already arrived, they will now gradually leave,
he added.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys
Fouche, editing by Ed Osmond)
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