Ankara/Berlin.- Spain, ten other European countries, and Canada pledged this Wednesday at the NATO summit in Ankara to assume more responsibilities in the North Atlantic, Arctic, and Baltic Sea regions in response to the demands of the United States.
“With this initiative, Europe and Canada are making a contribution to improving the security of the North Atlantic and the High North,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement, defending the commitment as a “direct response to calls from the United States for other countries to assume more responsibility for the security of allied territory.”
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The commitment of these twelve nations, set out in a joint declaration, will mean that the countries involved—which include, in addition to Norway, Spain and Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom—will expand their cooperation in matters of defense, intelligence, and maritime command and control.
“We will cooperate even more intensely on allied intelligence, defense and maritime command and control in the northern seas, freedom of navigation and securing lines of communication,” said the head of the Norwegian Government, who specified that the United States will also contribute to “improving security.”
“The northern seas are not only important for Europe, they are also vital for the defense of North America,” the Norwegian leader added.
Trump’s desire to control Greenland
The twelve countries spoke in favor of taking on more weight when it comes to securing the northern regions of the Atlantic and the Arctic, as well as the Baltic Sea, after United States President Donald Trump showed his desire again on Tuesday and this Wednesday in Ankara to want to control the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland.
Those comments were rejected again by the Danish Executive, as the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, declared that the Arctic island “is not for sale” and that it is a territory that her country will defend.
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Støre, for his part, distanced himself from Trump’s statements, and reiterated that “it is the Greenlanders and the Danes who must decide on the development of the situation.”
“We will take care of security in the Arctic together,” he stressed.
When reporting on the commitment of the twelve countries, the Norwegian Government also recalled that last June, Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom announced that they were going to intensify their cooperation in anti-submarine warfare.
The threat from Russia
In the joint statement, the twelve noted that they are also acting after recognizing “a complex security environment,” in an initiative that serves to show “the desire and ability to deter and defend against the long-term threat posed by Russia.”
“Our nations already possess modern maritime capabilities and platforms, and have plans to significantly increase these capabilities over the next decade, which will position us as a collective force for high-level maritime operations,” they highlighted in the statement.
“This commitment shows a stronger Europe within a stronger NATO, in which Europe and Canada assume greater responsibility for our Euro-Atlantic security, in close coordination with the United States,” the countries elaborated, arguing that both Europeans and Canadians want to and are capable of “equitably sharing” the burdens within the Alliance.
