Is NATO up to the challenge?
There are signs NATO is trying to face up to the challenge. Nordic countries are among the biggest defence spenders in the alliance and on track to meet NATO’s target of five per cent of GDP by 2035.
The US and Finland are teaming up to build up to six icebreakers, the first due next year. Norway is buying frigates and submarines. The Nordics pooled air forces to create a fleet as large as Britain’s.
Shaken by Trump’s threats to make it a US state and keen to wean itself off a decades-long dependence on US defence support, Canada unveiled a major CA$35 billion ($25.7 billion) Arctic defence plan in March for infrastructure including military airfields in the region.
It is coordinating more closely with Nordic countries and, with Denmark, investing in ice-capable vessels. Prime Minister Mark Carney told Reuters during a March visit to Oslo that NATO’s focus on Arctic security was overdue but welcome.
British officer Vice-Admiral James Morley, deputy commander of JFC Norfolk, said Arctic Sentry will help more NATO soldiers learn how to operate in harsh polar conditions.
“It provides a much more realistic environment,” Morley told Reuters at the Bardufoss air base in northern Norway, where British Royal Marines train on snowmobiles, skis and helicopters. The United Kingdom is doubling to 2,000 the number of Royal Marines permanently deployed to Norway. In June, NATO activated a new grouping of 600 soldiers based in Sweden and Finland’s Lapland regions.
However, Iris Ferguson, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for Arctic and global resilience between 2022 and 2025, said prioritising the region is difficult.
“When you have a hot war burning in the East, it’s hard to direct investment into a region that doesn’t feel as hot,” Ferguson told Reuters, referring to Russia’s war on Ukraine.