Leaders urge EU to boost Arctic role to tackle Russia ‘threat’

A Leopard 2 tank fires during military drill during the NATO Cold Response drills near Bardufoss, in Arctic Norway, on March 13. | REUTERS

Sep 15, 2026

Rovaniemi, Finland – Twelve European countries who met meeting in Finland on Monday urged the European Union to beef up its presence in the Arctic, a geopolitical battleground caught between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We call for the European Union to take on a more strategic and proactive role in the European Arctic,” the countries’ leaders wrote in a joint statement following a European-Arctic Summit in the town of Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, attended by Denmark, France, Germany, Greece and Sweden, among others.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was in need of icebreakers, but it was not immediately clear if she was proposing joint acquisition or urging member states to bolster their own capacities.

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