Celtic countries 'playgrounds' for the military

It’s no wonder the Russians are ‘tetchy’! Looking South and West they see nothing but military alliances. There is NATO of course and then the various EU institutions including the Partnership for Peace. The UK and Ireland recently signed a military accord over training which was denounced by the Celtic League and then Britain and France old historical enemies signed some years ago their own Entente Cordiale.

This week in Brittany the Anglo-French military are about to strut their stuff with a major air land and sea exercise. There is a report here in Ouest France (use Google translate you will get the gist):

https://www.ouest-france.fr/politique/defense/l-assaut-francais-et-brita...

By the standards of NATO exercises such as Joint Warrior its a fairly small affair and the hardware on display is unlikely to give Putin any sleepless nights.

For the Brits of course the current alliance with France is a godsend as when Soviet submarines were thought to be sniffing around off Scotland a year ago the French very kindly lent the UK maritime reconnaissance aircraft (the Brits have none of their own although some are on order from the US).

It always strikes me that the Celtic countries are convenient military playgrounds. For Joint Warrior Northern Scotland and Wales were used, for this Anglo-French effort it's Brittany.

Image: An earlier Anglo-French exercise in 2016