Russia said it was seriously concerned by the arrival of NATO forces in Greenland, a mineral-rich island in the Arctic that US President Donald Trump has threatened to seize.
France, Sweden, Germany and Norway announced Wednesday that they would deploy military personnel to the island’s capital Nuuk as part of a reconnaissance mission.
The announcement came after a meeting between US, Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington failed to deter Trump’s ambition of taking the island.
Trump argues Greenland is vital for US security and that if Washington does not take it “China or Russia will”.
“The situation unfolding in the high latitudes is of serious concern to us,” the Russian embassy in Belgium, where NATO is headquartered, said in a statement published late Wednesday.
NATO is “building up its military presence there under the false pretext of a growing threat from Moscow and Beijing,” the embassy added.
Neither the Russian foreign ministry nor the Kremlin, whose statements carry more weight than individual embassies, have commented on the recent deployment.
Both NATO and Russia have bulked up their military presence in the Arctic in recent years, as melting sea ice opens the region up to international shipping and mining activities.
Trump’s statements have put unprecedented strain on NATO, an alliance that has been the bedrock of Western security since World War II.
Internal disagreements in the bloc over Greenland were making its ability to reach agreements “increasingly unpredictable,” the Russian embassy said.
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