DISINFO: The US has prepared for a war against Russia since year 2000, Trident Juncture is a move from theory to practise

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about the West as an aggressor. Trident Juncture 2018 was a large NATO exercise held in Norway with around 50,000 participants from 30 NATO and partner countries. forsvaret.no/en/exercise-and-operations/exercises/nato-exercise-2018, NATO is a defensive alliance, whose purpose is to protect the member states. The Alliance poses no threat to any country and does not see an immediate military threat against any NATO ally. For background on NATO-Russia relations see here. NATO began reaching out, offering dialogue in place of confrontation, at the London NATO Summit of July 1990. In the following years, NATO promoted dialogue and cooperation by creating the Partnership for Peace (PfP) and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), open to the whole of Europe, including Russia. In 1997, NATO and Russia signed the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security, creating the NATO Russia Permanent Joint Council. In 2002, this was upgraded, creating the NATO-Russia Council (NRC). NATO worked together on issues ranging from counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism to submarine rescue and civil emergency planning. However, in March 2014, in response to Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine, NATO suspended practical cooperation with Russia. At the same time, NATO has kept channels for communication with Russia open. The NATO-Russia Council has met seven times since April 2016. The Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General also engage regularly with their Russian counterparts.