Canada urges NATO to make Arctic Sentry initiative permanent

NATO's newly launched Arctic initiative should become a permanent fixture of the Western military alliance's activities, Canada's foreign minister said Wednesday.

Anita Anand was the keynote speaker who kicked off the Arctic 360 conference, which is taking place in Toronto over the next two days.

In a statement early Wednesday, NATO's supreme commander announced that the initiative known as Arctic Sentry had been launched and would provide an overall co-ordination of allied activities in the Far North, including military exercises being run by Denmark in Greenland and the annual Norwegian drill known as Cold Response.

"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 the commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, in a statement.

"It will leverage NATO's strength to protect our territory and ensure the Arctic and High North remains secure."

Speaking at the conference a few hours later, Anand said Canada has long tried to get NATO interested in better defending the region, which is increasingly becoming the focus of geopolitical rivalry.

"We would like to see that initiative be permanent," Anand said. "I am pushing NATO allies and the secretary-general to see this as a collective effort, not only an individual effort."

She said she believes NATO has to look north for threats, not just to the east where Ukraine, which is not a member of the alliance, is almost in its fourth year of fighting a high-intensity war against Russia.

Anand was not clear what military resources Canada was willing to contribute toward the initiative, which is not a distinct military operation. It's also unclear whether Canada's routine military training exercises, notably Operation Nanook, could fall within the auspices of the NATO activities.

While on paper the alliance initiative was created to guard against Russian and Chinese activities and influence in the region, it was a direct response to complaints by U.S. President Donald Trump that Greenland wasn't being properly defended and the U.S. should annex the Danish territory.

Also Wednesday, ahead of a regular meeting of NATO defence ministers, Secretary General Mark Rutte said it was crucial that NATO do more. 

"For the first time now, we will bring everything we do in the Arctic together under one command," Rutte said.

"By doing that, we will not only leverage what we are doing much more effectively and have a bigger impact, we will also be able to assess which gaps there are, which we have to fill — and of course we will fill them."

The crisis was averted when Trump said there was a framework deal that would allow the U.S. more access to Greenland for defence purposes, including improvements to North American missile defence systems, known as the Golden Dome.