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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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NATO's new focus on the Arctic will likely not mean significantly more assets, such as warships or submarines, are deployed, the deputy commander of the alliance's European forces told Newsweek.
NATO said on Tuesday it had started planning for an "enhanced vigilance activity" dubbed Arctic Sentry. Sketching out what this initiative could look like is still in the early stages.
NATO members in Europe and Canada have rushed to find a way to head off the growing rift between the United States and Denmark over Washington's desire to control Greenland, a vast Arctic territory. NATO chief Mark Rutte said he had discussed with U.S. President Donald Trump last month how the alliance could best shield its interests in the Arctic against Russian and Chinese influence.
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NATO has already launched similarly named projects in the Baltic Sea and along its eastern flank, with Russia and its key ally, Belarus.
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Arctic Sentry will probably appear "not massively dissimilar to what we do now," said Admiral Sir Keith Blount, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR).
"But to the military that are actually using the...capability that's up there, it would look far more joined up, far more coherent, far more focused," added Blount. The British Royal Navy admiral is due to finish his stint as DSACEUR next month.
"If you were to count the number of airplanes, the amount of ships, the amount of submarines, it's not going to look like massive up-arrows," Blount said. "That's not what this is designed to be. It could be, if that's what the threat required. But that's not the start point of our thinking when it comes to Arctic Sentry."
"I do not see it being a massive uptick."
The British admiral declined to provide more details, saying planning was just getting underway. Officials based in the Joint Force Command headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, are looking at possible options, Blount said.
Typically, proposals from Norfolk would then be passed over to NATO leaders in Europe, including the current Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), he said. The current SACEUR is U.S. Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich.
He would then choose which avenue to go down, Blount said. "But it's not designed to be a rapid movement that is going to be spiky or provocative. It's about doing broadly what we're doing now—but doing it better."
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The Arctic is the region of the world most impacted by climate change, the melting ice opening up new routes for both military and civilian traffic. Greenland, a strategic and expansive Arctic landmass, is crucial for detecting advanced missiles heading for North America and boasts untapped mineral deposits.
Most of the eight Arctic states are NATO members, but Russia is the region's most dominant country. Moscow is well-accustomed to operating in the austere, unforgiving conditions of the Arctic; it has built cities with a significant civilian population, rather than just remote, military-focused outposts, above the Arctic Circle.
The Kremlin has been busy reopening Soviet-era bases and building new facilities in the Arctic. Several major sites, including those home to many of Russia's nuclear-armed submarines, are clustered around the Arctic cities of Murmansk and Severomorsk.
NATO has, in recent years, begun to shore up its Arctic presence, not least by heavily investing in anti-submarine warfare (ASW). But Russia's submarines are notoriously hard to track, and it is often acknowledged that NATO isn't quite there yet with its ASW.
Blount downplayed these concerns, saying NATO was "very good" at ASW. "So the very thought that Russian submarines can just operate with impunity, go wherever they like and remain unseen or unlocated, is absolutely not the case."
NATO forces on Monday started ASW exercises in northern Norway, which are due to finish on February 13. Roughly 25,000 troops from 14 NATO countries, including the U.S., will train "under harsh, Arctic conditions" the following month.
China has declared itself a "near Arctic" state and isn't the only far-flung power to turn its eyes north. The Arctic is increasingly attracting attention worldwide.
Trump has claimed, without serving up evidence, that Greenland is "covered with Russian and Chinese ships" and argued that if the U.S. isn't in control of the island, Moscow and Beijing will swoop in. Both statements have drawn raised eyebrows from European military officials.
Blount said NATO was "very familiar" with Russian ships operating in areas like the Arctic, but Chinese military ships are "still a bit of a novelty" close to Europe.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday the White House had "gotten much more than we initially had" in conversations with European officials over Greenland.
"The idea that they haven't made any accommodations or concessions to the United States, it's not true," Vance said during an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show.
European countries have rallied around Copenhagen and Nuuk after the Trump administration seemed impervious to Danish and Greenlandic insistence that the island is not for sale.
In the midst of a rambling rant largely directed at European countries in Switzerland last month, the U.S. president appeared to roll back threats of military action to seize Greenland, prompting a sigh of European relief. But Trump did not waver in his demand for U.S. control of the territory.
Hours after calling for "immediate negotiations" on the U.S. acquisition of Greenland, Trump said he had agreed on a "framework of a future deal" but put forward scant details beyond remarking: "It's the ultimate long-term deal."
Some reports have suggested that U.S. military bases on Greenland could be deemed American territory under the new agreement, much as the United Kingdom has in Cyprus. Official statements from NATO on this "framework" have been scarce.
The U.S. has a long-standing military presence in Greenland, concentrated at its Pituffik Space Base, perched on Greenland's northwestern coast. Decades-old defense agreements, periodically updated, have left the door wide open to more U.S. soldiers on the island.
European officials have been broadly receptive to a stronger U.S. military presence on the territory, provided it is agreed with Washington's allies.
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