Belgium’s defense minister called on NATO to launch a security operation in the Arctic, urging transatlantic unity amid growing European unease about U.S. President Donald Trump's push to take control of Greenland.
"We have to collaborate, work together and show strength and unity," Theo Francken said in a phone interview, adding that there is a need for "a NATO operation in the high north".
Trump said on Friday that the U.S. needs to own Greenland to prevent Russia or China from occupying it in the future.
European officials have been discussing ways to ease U.S. concerns about security around Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Francken suggested NATO's Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry operations, which combine forces from different countries with drones, sensors and other technology to monitor land and sea, as possible models for an "Arctic Sentry".
