NATO launches Arctic Sentry mission to ease tension over Trump's Greenland push

By Andrew Gray and Lili Bayer

BRUSSELS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - NATO said on Wednesday 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 U.S. President Donald Trump's push for the U.S. 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.

"What will happen beyond that will be coordinated within NATO between the partners tomorrow and the day after tomorrow," he said.

NATO began planning for the mission after Trump and Rutte held talks in Davos last month at the height of the Greenland crisis, sparked by Trump's insistence that the U.S. had to own the territory, which is part of fellow NATO member Denmark.

Trump said the U.S. needed Greenland for national security reasons, citing Greenland's strategic location for detecting long-range missile strikes on the U.S. He declined to rule out taking Greenland by force and threatened to impose tariffs on Denmark and seven of its European partners.

Danish and other European leaders responded that the U.S. already has a military base on Greenland and is able to add more under a 1951 agreement. Some European officials said they believed Trump was motivated primarily by a desire to expand U.S. territory.

In Davos, Trump said he would not use force to take Greenland and agreed with Rutte that NATO would play a greater role in securing the broader Arctic region.

NATO COMMANDER SAYS AIM IS TO 'MAINTAIN STABILITY' IN ARCTIC

The new mission, known as an "enhanced vigilance activity" in NATO jargon, will be led by the alliance's Joint Force Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

"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," U.S. Air Force General Alexus G. Grynkewich, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in a statement.

Denmark said it expects to contribute substantially to Arctic Sentry in close coordination with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, but that the precise make‑up of its participation would need to be agreed in further planning with its allies and NATO.

Earlier, British Defence Minister John Healey said British forces will play a vital part in NATO's Arctic Sentry mission.

The British government also said the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force plans major military activity in the High North, with hundreds of personnel due to be deployed across Iceland, the Danish Straits and Norway in an exercise due in September.

The JEF comprises Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.