ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by  Alex Gorka ; Originally appeared on  strategic-culture.org The US, Swedish, and Finnish defense ministers signed a trilateral  Statement of Intent  (SOI) to expand defense cooperation on all fronts. The signing  ceremony  took place in Washington on May 8. In 2016, the two Scandinavian nations finalized separate defense SOIs with America. Now they have signed a joint document to unify those previous agreements and enhance their interoperability. The Scandinavian visitors claimed this was just a starting point for a more mature relationship. The agreement emphasizes the countries’ combined joint exercises and streamlines the procedures that have been established to manage them. Other issues covered by the SOI include regular trilateral meetings at all levels, the exchange of information (including about weapons systems), increased practical interaction, cooperation in multinational operations, improved communications, and the promotion of the EU-NATO strategic part

Click to see the full-size image On May 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin is opening a 19-km bridge across the Kerch Strait, which connects mainland Russia to Crimea. The bridge, which links Russia’s Republic of Crimea and Krasnodar Region, has a capacity of 40,000 cars per day. The vehicles section of the bridge will be open to traffic on May 16. The railway section of the bridge is scheduled to be opened in early 2019. Its capacity is 47 pairs of trains per day. Summing up numbers, the bridge will have the capacity of 14 million passengers and 13 million tons of cargo per year. The project costs 228 billion rubles ($3.69 billion). The Crimean Bridge is the longest bridge in Europe, taking over the Vasco da Gama Bridge in Lisbon, Portugal. According to initial estimates the bridge had been expected to be fully constructed by the end of 2018 but has been completed six months ahead of the schedule. Ukrainian leadership and experts have repeatedly criticized the pr