Britain and Norway on Thursday unveiled a new defence pact that will see their navies jointly operate a warship fleet to "hunt Russian submarines" in the North Atlantic.

The agreement between the two NATO allies aims to protect critical undersea infrastructure, such as cables, that Western officials say is increasingly under threat from Moscow.

Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported that sightings of Russian vessels in UK waters have increased 30 percent in the past two years.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store was met by his UK counterpart Keir Starmer for talks at Downing Street, in London.

Store hailed "a very important agreement on defence cooperation and integration".

"This is really about the present. This is about acknowledging where Europe stands and what we n

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