This autumn the world will see some of the biggest military exercises since the Cold War. NATO is gearing up for the Trident Juncture 2018, war games that will start in late October. The war games will be held in Norway, a neighboring country of Russia. 40-thousand troops from over 30 countries will participate in the exercise. Also next month, Russia, China and Mongolia, will have their own war games. Vostok-2018 will take place in Russia's eastern and central regions and involve almost 300-thousand troops and more than a thousand military aircraft. CGTN's Aljosa Milenkovic has more from Moscow.

Russian strategic nuclear submarine Yuri Dolgorukiy is heading to a mission to the depths of the White Sea. The submarine crew fires a salvo of four intercontinental ballistic missiles Bulava, to a target on the Russian Kamchatka peninsula. It is the first time that the Russian Navy has performed this kind of operation in 27 years. According to some analysts, it is just a show of military might amid constantly increasing tensions with the West, and rounds of military drills around the Russian borders.

ALJOSA MILENKOVIC MOSCOW "Just months ago, near the eastern Russian border, the US held joint exercises with South Korea. Over 320 thousand troops took part. Now on the western front, new NATO drills are about to kick off, and they too will be under the watchful eye of the Russian military."

VICTOR BARANEC RETIRED COLONEL, MILITARY ANALYST "We've got used to the exercises, as you get used to the noises made by cars outside your house. We observe carefully what happens at our borders. And we noticed an increasing number of NATO troops participating in the exercises. The number of reconnaissance flights multiplied by 8. We can see how much stronger is the 'fist' near our border."

That "fist" is coming to Norway by the end of this October. According to high ranking US military officials, Norway is chosen because of its geographical landscape and faithful NATO membership.

JAMES FOGGO US NAVY ADMIRAL "Norway is an exceptionally good training ground and proven area for exercise of this magnitude. Furthermore, Norway is being a faithful member of NATO alliance. We are excited about having the opportunity to train in very challenging archipelago, where coming ashore is not easy."

But the Russians don't agree with that explanation. Because of global warming and the melting of ice caps, new shipping routes are opening close to the North Pole. And they think a desire by the US to impose their dominance and control over the Arctic route is behind those NATO drills.

FRANZ KLINTSEVICH DEFENSE COMMITTEE, RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT "With the opening of the new shipping routes, Russia would gain colossal economic influence, especially taking into account that we are selling American bonds and securities, and are about to break off the US dollar, the blood smeared dollar. It might be a core problem for them. But there are no problems with Russia that could be possibly resolved in a military way."

Both sides say that neither Trident Juncture nor Vostok 2018 is related to the increasing tension between them. Despite those claims, this fall, hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides will be playing in the war games from the flatlands of Russia's Far East to the depths of Norway's fjords. Aljosa Milenkovic, CGTN, Moscow.