NATO on Wednesday announced the start of a mission called Arctic Sentry, intended to coordinate the growing military footprint of alliance members in the Arctic. The mission is part of an agreement reached to ease severe tensions inside the alliance that had been inflamed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for the United States to acquire Greenland.
According to a statement from NATO’s military headquarters, Arctic Sentry will bring together allied activity in the region, including exercises such as Denmark’s "Arctic Endurance on Greenland." The alliance framed the mission as a step to organize and manage the increasing operational tempo of member states in the High North.
"Arctic Sentry underscores the Alliance’s commitment to safeguard its members and maintain stability in one of the world’s most strategically significant and environmentally challenging areas," said U.S. Air Force General Alexus G. Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe. "It will leverage NATO’s strength to protect our territory and ensure the Arctic and High North remains secure."
NATO began planning Arctic Sentry after a meeting between President Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Davos last month, which occurred at the height of what the statement described as the Greenland crisis. That crisis had been sparked by President Trump’s insistence that the United States should own Greenland, a territory that is part of fellow NATO member Denmark.
Rutte and Trump agreed that NATO would take on a larger role in protecting the Arctic region, while Denmark, the United States and Greenland would continue bilateral or trilateral discussions about Greenland itself, the alliance said.
Separately, British Defence Minister John Healey said that British armed forces will play a vital role in NATO’s Arctic Sentry mission. The British government added that the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force - or JEF - plans significant military activity in the High North, with hundreds of personnel scheduled to deploy across Iceland, the Danish Straits and Norway for an exercise due in September.
The statement listed the members of the JEF as Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.