Greenland's capital Nuuk (Illustrative photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / EPA)

On February 11, NATO's Allied Command Operations (ACO) launched a new mission, Arctic Sentry. About this was reported on the website of NATO's European Command.

The mission is intended to further strengthen NATO's position in the Arctic and the High North as the Alliance's permanent presence in the region grows, the publication says.

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They note that Arctic Sentry builds on NATO's growing focus on security in the Arctic and follows a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and the Secretary General of the Alliance Mark Rutte during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2026.

During the event, they agreed that NATO should collectively assume more responsibility for the defense of the region, taking into account Russia's military activity and China's growing interest in it.

"The preparations for Arctic Sentry provided NATO planners with full visibility of Allied nations’ activities in the Arctic and High North. Moving forward, ACO will use Arctic Sentry to cohere these actions into one overarching operational approach to Allies’ increasing activities, which will enhance NATO’s presence there," the statement said.

In particular, this refers to Denmark's Arctic Endurance exercise and Norway's upcoming Cold Response exercise, which has already begun to receive allied troops.

In January, amid Trump's statements about his desire to get Greenland, a self-governing island belonging to Denmark, a number of NATO countries announced that they would send a limited number of troops there for Arctic Endurance. In response, the US president decided to impose tariffs on allies, but changed his mind after meeting with Rutte.

The Arctic Sentry will be operated by the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, USA, which has been responsible for the entire region since December.

  • After the meeting between Trump and Rutte, the Danish prime minister said that the NATO secretary general has no authority to negotiate with the United States on Greenland's sovereignty on behalf of Denmark. Axios' interlocutors said that under the deal, proposed by Rutte, the United States will not have full control over the island.
  • At the end of January, president Zelenskyy assumed that the geopolitical situation around Greenland, which provoked a crisis in relations between Denmark and the United States, could be used to "recognize" Ukrainian territories as Russian.
  • On February 1, Trump said that negotiations on Greenland had allegedly already begun and "close to a deal".