UK’s foreign minister to urge NATO to focus on Arctic in Finland and Norway visit

By Catarina Demony

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Britain’s foreign minister will visit Finland and Norway on Wednesday, where she will call for NATO to step up its work in ‍the Arctic to safeguard regional interests against Russia.

Yvette Cooper’s Arctic Circle tour follows renewed threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to take over Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers will meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary ‌of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.

Britain’s Prime ‌Minister Keir Starmer has said he stands with Denmark in its defence of Greenland.

Cooper’s trip will focus on Russia, which the foreign office described in a statement as the “greatest threat” to Arctic security.

In Finland, Cooper ​will meet border guards defending NATO’s eastern flank with Russia, while in Norway she will visit marines taking part in a ‍live training exercise.

The high north, which ​includes Greenland, is home to key shipping routes ​and critical infrastructure such as undersea cables, making the region vital ‍to Britain’s security, the foreign office said.

“The UK and Norway share a determination to ensure Russia does not succeed in its illegal war of aggression,” the foreign office said, adding that Russia posed a threat through its military activity, risks to undersea ‍infrastructure and the use of its “shadow fleet”.

Britain last week provided support to the U.S. in its operation to seize a Russian-flagged oil tanker ‍in the North Atlantic.

“Arctic ‍security is critical to protecting Britain and ​NATO,” Cooper said, urging the military alliance to ​enhance efforts ⁠to defend Euro-Atlantic interests against “hostile states who ‌seek to meddle” in the high north.

“Coming together as an alliance allows us to unify and tackle this emerging threat,” she added, noting that climate change has opened new shipping routes, exposed valuable resources, and turned the region into a “hotspot” for geopolitical competition.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing ⁠by Rosalba O’Brien)