PEACE campaigners have slammed Nato’s dangerous nuclear war games which begin today in the North Sea.

Dubbed Steadfast Noon, the exercise will run for two weeks. 

Led by Belgium and the Netherlands, it uses eight military bases and will involve 2,000 personnel and 60 aircraft from 13 nations. 

Bomber aircraft and fighter jets that can carry nuclear warheads are taking part in the war games, which mainly take place about 500 miles from Russia.

Britain will also be carrying out its own exercises called Operation Strike Warrior in the North Sea at the same time.

Officials of the US-led alliance say that Moscow has been informed about the drills.

Nato’s new secretary-general, former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, said the manoeuvres would show “that Nato is ready and is able to respond to any threat.”

The  announcement of the nuclear exercises came just as survivors of the two US atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki heard that they had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Farah Dakhlallah of the Geneva Nuclear Disarmament Initiative went to social media with a post saying: “There is bad timing, there is dropping a brick and then there is this. Nice work.”

Director of Lex International, Beatrice Fihn, who is also a senior fellow at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, described Nato’s war games as a practice run for “wiping out hundreds of thousands of civilians” with weapons that would also “flatten cities and poison survivors.”

But condemnation of the nuclear attack exercises went beyond the timing of the announcement.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) general secretary Kate Hudson said: “When opinion polls show the overwhelming majority of European people want negotiations to end the Ukraine war, it’s a disgrace that Nato governments are proceeding with these inflammatory nuclear war games.

“This is just a massive waste of national resources when every pound is needed to lift families out of poverty.”

She added: “Why Britain is running Operation Strike Warrior naval exercises in parallel is anybody’s guess. The government has to change its priorities.”

Communist Party of Britain international secretary Kevan Nelson said: “The aggressive posture of Nato is a ratcheting up of international tensions, and is part of a relentless drive to war.

“The world needs a process of dialogue on peace and disarmament, not provocative militarism.”

US-based peace campaigner and journalist Eugene Puryear accused Nato of continuing “to dance on the precipice of World War III.”

He told the Morning Star Nato countries were spending “trillions of dollars, $2 trillion (£1.5 trillion) in the US alone, to expand their arsenals of planet-destroying weapons, while refusing to seriously address global challenges like poverty, hunger and climate change.”

The campaign against the escalation of military tensions was front and centre of discussions as hundreds of peace activists came together for a CND conference in central London on Saturday.

Under the banner “The World We Want: A New Agenda for Peace and Justice,” speakers, including Jeremy Corbyn MP, Asad Rehman from War on Want, Muslim Association of Britain’s Raghad Altikrit, Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition and Shadow World Investigations Andrew Feinstein, demanded a change of course away from the headlong rush towards a hot war with Russia or China.

The conference also called on peace activists from across the country to join the national demonstration at RAF Lakenheath on November 2 against the return of US nuclear weapons to the base.

Since April 2022, there has been growing evidence that the US intends to use RAF Lakenheath as a major part of Nato’s nuclear weapons infrastructure in Europe. 

US budget documents show silos at Lakenheath are being upgraded to store the new B61-12 guided nuclear bomb and facilities at the base are being developed to house additional troops.

Washington also intends to double the amount of nuclear-capable F-35 aircraft it has stationed at Lakenheath to 54, as part of efforts to increase its military presence in Europe, making Britain a huge target for a nuclear attack.

Nato has long claimed the strategic nuclear forces of the US and Britain are key to its security deterrence. 

Nato assistant secretary-general for defence policy and planning Angus Lapsley said Steadfast Noon was designed to show adversaries that Nato should be taken seriously.

Mr Lapsley said Nato has been monitoring the emergence of North Korea as a nuclear power, the expansion of China’s nuclear capabilities and developments in Iran, “but obviously what worries us most is Russia.”

He said that Moscow has recently been “talking an awful lot about their nuclear doctrine and how that may or not be evolving.”

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that a conventional attack on Russia by any country with the support of a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack.

The threat was aimed at dissuading the US and its allies from allowing Ukraine to strike into Russian territory with longer-range weapons.

Nato has also been attempting to expand its influence in Asia as it continues to ramp up tensions with both Russia and China.

The new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba floated the idea of an “Asian Nato” but the idea was slapped down by India and other Asian countries.

When asked about the idea last week following the summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations in Laos, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that any form of militarisation and any proposals regarding new military blocs come laden with the risk of confrontation, which can develop into a “hot phase.”

Mr Lavrov also said he was concerned at Japanese rearmament.

“Having forgotten the lessons of World War II, the Japanese authorities have [increased] defence spending and  are augmenting their basic doctrines with a pre-emptive strike capability,” Mr Lavrov said.

Mr Lavrov said that the US and its allies are seeking to draw the Asia-Pacific region into Nato’s sphere of interests by creating a range of exclusive US-led military and political associations.

But Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told reporters: “We do not need Nato in Asean.”