Britain and nine Northern European allies plan to sign a pact Nov. 10 to coordinate their navies, air forces and ground troops against Russian submarines, the Financial Times reported.The countries are all members of the Joint Expeditionary Force, a security group Britain has led since 2014. The others are Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The agreement is expected to be signed by those members, according to the reportMember states plan to sign aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales on Tuesday, ahead of the Atlantic Future Forum conference on the warship. The work would cover the North Atlantic, the Arctic and the Baltic Sea, where Britain’s top military officer says Russian submarines could threaten shipping in a war. Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, Britain’s chief of the defense staff, discussed the pact in an interview with the paper.From meetings to joint operationsThe agreement would move the group past memorandums of understanding, exchanges and meetings toward practical coordination of naval, air and land forces, the Financial Times reported. Knighton said it is imperative to hold back Russian submarines so they can’t target or threaten shipping in wartime. He said securing the region also protects the U.S. East Coast.The paper described the larger European presence as an answer to President Donald Trump’s call for allies to take more responsibility for their own defense. Vital undersea cables run through the region, and melting ice has made parts of the High North easier to navigate. Knighton said Washington’s shift toward the Indo-Pacific began 15 years or more ago.Knighton also said Britain had been slower than some European allies to grasp the scale of the Russian threat and promised further action against submarines in the North Atlantic. He said Moscow’s appetite for risk had grown. He told the paper: “This is the most dangerous period I’ve known in my adult life.”Evidence and open questionsBritain’s case draws partly on an operation it disclosed April 9. Defence Secretary John Healey said the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, working with Norway, tracked a nuclear-powered Akula-class attack submarine and two spy submarines from Russia’s deep-sea research directorate, known as GUGI, for more than a month. Healey said the specialist vessels are designed to survey underwater infrastructure in peacetime and sabotage it in conflict.He also said there was no evidence of damage to cables or pipelines. Russia’s embassy in London said Russia does not threaten undersea infrastructure and dismissed his claims as unverifiable. Britain released images of the Russian base and vessels but has not said what the submarines did.Several points remain unconfirmed. The pact is unsigned, and the report doesn’t say how many ships and aircraft each country would commit or who would command them. Knighton’s remarks come from an interview, not from a published agreement.Member states are due to sign the agreement Nov. 10, the Financial Times reported.