LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - NATO defence ministers will likely discuss measures to bolster the security of Greenland in a meeting next week, British defence minister John Healey said, after U.S. President Donald Trump nearly upended the alliance over his desire to acquire it.
Trump has repeatedly asserted that he wants Greenland, saying European allies have failed to properly secure it. His comments sparked a dispute with NATO member Denmark over its overseas territory and strained the defence alliance.
Those tensions eased after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he had discussed how NATO allies could work collectively to ensure Arctic security with Trump, but details of those plans remain scarce.
ARCTIC SENTRY MISSION
Healey said a proposed NATO Arctic Sentry mission was a way in which “we, as NATO nations, can demonstrate to President Trump that we’re already stepping up on Greenland’s security, that we accept and agree that he’s got a point of concern”.
“Trump’s put his finger on a challenge. What we’re demonstrating to him is that NATO’s already on it,” Healey told Reuters in an interview, adding nations would “step up further”.
“I would expect to see more discussions at the NATO Defence Ministers meeting that I’ll be at in Brussels next week”.
NATO has started military planning for “Arctic Sentry”, which it describes as an enhanced vigilance mission in the area, but it had been unclear if it would be discussed at the February 12 meeting.
Britain has boosted its defence spending in light of the war in Ukraine and Trump’s demand that NATO allies spend more.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event where 10 smaller companies pitched their technology to investors, Healey said he wanted “sources of private capital that haven’t looked at defence before” so that record rising public defence investment could be matched by sources of private investment.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Alex Richardson)
