New Delhi, July 29 -- The exchange was asymmetrical. Russia's Ambassador to Norway, Nikolai Korchunov, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday that Moscow would respond "proportionally" to what he described as threats emanating from Norway - without specifying what those threats were.

reaffirming that Russia seeks no armed conflict with any NATO member, attaching the standard caveat that threats will not go unanswered. What distinguishes Korchunov's remarks from the baseline is their specific address to Oslo.

Norway occupies a particular position in European security architecture. It shares a 198-kilometer land border with Russia, the only Nordic NATO member to do so. It hosts key intelligence infrastructure relevant to Russian submarine movement...