To better protect the Arctic and the Far North, Great Britain wants to double the number of its soldiers stationed in Norway from the current 1,000 to 2,000 within three years.
02/11/2026, 07:0702/11/2026, 07:07
Defense Minister John Healey will make the announcement today during a visit to a British base in Norway north of the Arctic Circle, the government announced in London. Great Britain will also take part in the planned NATO mission “Arctic Sentry”.
British soldiers during an exercise. (archive image)Image: keystone
“Defense demands are increasing and Russia poses the greatest threat to the Arctic and the Far North that we have seen since the Cold War,” said Healey. Russian President Vladimir Putin is rapidly expanding the military presence in the region, “including reopening old Cold War bases.”
US President Trump has instigated conflict over Greenland
Healey will discuss plans for the new NATO mission at a meeting with the alliance’s defense ministers in Brussels tomorrow. With this mission, NATO wants to contribute to the further de-escalation of the alliance’s internal conflict over Greenland. US President Donald Trump claims the autonomous Arctic island, which belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, for the United States. In order to enforce this claim, he also threatened European NATO allies. Trump justified the request by saying, among other things, that Russia or China could otherwise take action.
According to information from Western defense alliance circles, “Arctic Sentry” primarily includes additional patrols with ships and aircraft as well as exercises to increase presence.
The British government announced that around 1,500 soldiers would be temporarily relocated to Norway as part of an upcoming NATO exercise in March. The maneuvers in Norway, Finland and Sweden will strengthen the alliance’s ability to defend key locations amid fjords and mountains, it said.
Norway is already a British partner against the threat from Moscow
London and Oslo only announced in December that they would strengthen submarine defense with a joint fleet. This was the consequence of the significantly increased threat to British waters from Russian ships, the Ministry of Defense in London announced at the time.
Recently there have been repeated incidents with Russian ships and submarines.
Germany also agreed on stronger cooperation with Great Britain at the end of last year. German maritime patrol aircraft of the P-8 Poseidon type – special military aircraft for use against submarines – are to take off from the Scottish military base Lossiemouth in the future. (sda/dpa)