NATO on Wednesday launched Arctic Sentry, a mission intended to deter great powers such as Russia and China from extending their influence over the Arctic region.
The announcement comes in the wake of a push by US President Donald Trump to take control of Greenland, a mineral-rich, autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark. For several fraught weeks, Trump justified his comments – which included threats to annex the island militarily – with reference to the threat posed by Russia and China.
“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 US General Alexus Grynkewich, according to AFP. Grynkewich also holds the post of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Although Trump initially dismissed assurances from Europe that Greenland could be safeguarded from Russian and Chinese ambitions without becoming a US territory, he finally ruled out annexing the island of 55,000 people after a conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month.
Trump later said that he and Rutte had agreed to a “framework” deal that would ensure both NATO and US interests were respected. Weeks later, details of the plan have still not been released.
Arctic Sentry is also something of an unknown, at least in terms of what new military capabilities might be deployed – although Denmark is set to contribute “substantially” and Germany has pledged four Eurofighter jets.
“What is really new about it is that for the first time now, we will bring everything we do in the Arctic together under one command,” NATO chief MarkRutte said, as per AFP.
“We will also be able to assess what gaps there are, which we have to fill and of course we will fill them.”
Prior to their meeting, Trump’s threats to use military force to take control of the territory of a NATO ally created a crisis within the transatlantic alliance – the shockwaves of which are still being felt.
France and Canada both opened consulates in Greenland’s capital city of Nuuk on Feb. 6 – despite the fact that French and Canadian citizens in Greenland number in the tens rather than the hundreds. Paris and Ottawa described the move rather in terms of their commitment to “stand together with the people of Greenland and Denmark.”
The Greenland crisis also exposed a rift within Europe itself. Some leaders, including Rutte, European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, view the US as indispensable to European security despite Trump’s unpredictability.
Others view Europe’s reliance on the US as a historic error – and a present-day threat.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron gave an interview to Le Monde, in which he warned Europeans not to succumb to “a cowardly sense of relief” now that the immediate crisis in Greenland is over.
“For nine years, I have been advocating for a more sovereign Europe,” Macron said. “We have won this ideological battle. However, we are not moving at the right pace and we are not operating on the right scale.”
NATO’s launch of Arctic Sentry in response to the Greenland crisis echoes its launch of Eastern Sentry on Sept. 12, 2025, after NATO jets were scrambled due to the appearance of at least 19 Russian drones in Polish airspace.