BERLIN, Feb 3 (Reuters) - NATO has started military planning for an Arctic Sentry mission, a spokesperson for the alliance's military headquarters SHAPE said on Tuesday, against a backdrop of tensions between the U.S. and European allies over Greenland.
Repeated remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump that he wants to acquire Greenland, accusing European allies of failing to properly secure the large Arctic island against Russia or China, have sparked a dispute with Copenhagen over the Danish overseas territory and triggered strains with NATO.
“Planning is underway for a NATO enhanced vigilance activity, named Arctic Sentry,” Colonel Martin O'Donnell, spokesperson for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, said, confirming a report by German magazine Spiegel.
He declined to provide additional details as planning had only just begun.
After meeting Trump in Davos in January, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said they had discussed how NATO allies could work collectively to ensure Arctic security, including not just Greenland but the seven NATO nations with land in the Arctic.
Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said it was very gratifying that military planning for the NATO mission was underway. "It is crucial that we work together with our NATO allies to increase security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic," he said on social media platform X.
It was not immediately clear whether NATO defence ministers will discuss the topic at their February 12 meeting in Brussels.
Under the alliance's rules, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. General Alexus Grynkewich, has the authority to plan and execute "enhanced vigilance activities" without needing unanimous approval by the allies.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Additional reporting by Louise Rasmussen in Copenhagen; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Mark Heinrich and Anna Ringstrom)
