Nato launches Arctic Sentry mission in bid to ease Greenland tensions with Trump
The mission brings efforts by various alliance members under a single command, as Russia and China take a greater interest in the region
Nato said on Wednesday that it had launched a mission to strengthen its presence in the Arctic, part of an effort to defuse severe tensions within the alliance prompted by US President Donald Trump’s push for the US to acquire Greenland.
The new mission, Arctic Sentry, will coordinate an increasing military presence of Nato allies in the region, including exercises such as Denmark’s Arctic Endurance on Greenland, the alliance’s military headquarters said in a statement.
Nato did not quantify how many troops or specify what types of military assets would be involved in the mission.
But Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said it would bring efforts by various alliance members under a single command, as Russia and China take a greater interest in the Arctic, where new sea lanes are opening up due to melting ice.
“We will not only be able to leverage what we are doing much more effectively,” he told reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels. “We will also be able to assess which gaps there are, which we have to fill. And, of course, we will fill them.”
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that the German military will participate in the first stage of the mission with four Eurofighters and air-to-air refuelling capabilities.