CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut – Since U.S. President Donald Trump issued a barrage of threats to conquer Greenland, authorities on the frozen island have turned to a northern ally for help: Canada.
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A Canadian Armed Forces reserve unit called the Rangers has long maintained a year-round presence in largely inaccessible Arctic communities. For three years, authorities in Greenland and Denmark have been consulting with Canadian officials about how to build their own version of the Rangers – discussions that have become increasingly urgent with Trump’s threats and growing fears of Russian hostility in the Arctic.
“The rhetoric from the White House has accelerated efforts to reject the idea that Arctic communities need U.S. help to save them,” said Whitney Lackenbauer, a volunteer lieutenant colonel with the Canadian Rangers who was involved in the talks and recently spoke to Reuters during a 5,000-kilometer Rangers snowmobile trek in the Arctic.
“In the Nordic countries and Canada we are increasingly realizing that we can come together at military and diplomatic levels to send a message that has moral weight.”
As Canada looks to stop relying on the United States to protect its vast Arctic, Prime Minister Mark Carney is strengthening ties with Nordic countries, which he calls trusted partners, and sharing security tips with them.
Canada’s increased defense cooperation with Nordic countries is part of Carney’s effort to strengthen alliances between what he calls “middle powers” in a world where the United States is seen as a less reliable partner.
The White House said Trump’s leadership led allies to “recognize the need to meaningfully contribute to their own defense” and that the Arctic was a critical region for U.S. national security and economy.
“The administration is participating in high-level diplomatic discussions with the governments of Greenland and Denmark to address United States national security interests in Greenland,” a White House spokesman said in an email.
Alliances in the Arctic are changing as climate change makes them more accessible. Russia has far more military bases than any other country there, and in recent years China has begun increasing its presence in the mineral-rich region, mostly in partnership with Russia.
While Carney says Canada will no longer rely on another nation to protect its own territory, he says the biggest “threat” to the Arctic comes from Russia – and Nordic countries have increased their own defenses since Russia invaded Ukraine.
In March, Canada and the five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – agreed to deepen cooperation on military procurement and ramp up defense production to address security threats, including cyberattacks.
A plan for how Greenland could adapt the Canadian Rangers is expected by the end of this year, according to government policy documents. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand told Reuters she meets regularly with Nordic officials to work on collective defense and security in the Arctic.
Canada’s “partnership with the United States through NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, remains critical,” she said. However, Canada is focused on strengthening new alliances. This includes the opening of a Canadian consulate in Nuuk in February and an invitation to their Nordic counterparts to visit the Canadian Arctic this year.
“We have to build something new, and it has to be a world order that is built on the values that we represent,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Carney during the Nordic-Canadian summit in Oslo in March.
In April, Alexander Stubb became the first Finnish president in a dozen years to visit Canada and sign several agreements on Arctic cooperation. Stubb and Carney took to the ice for hockey practice in Ottawa, and afterward, Stubb said he and Carney sent each other messages almost every day.
The two leaders sometimes talked about hockey or baseball, Stubb told reporters, but “most of the time it’s about NATO, Ukraine or Iran.”
No more “free tickets”.
Lackenbauer, the honorary lieutenant colonel with the Canadian Rangers, is also an Arctic expert at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. He said Canada should revise its approach to Arctic security, as Nordic countries did after Russian troops invaded Ukraine in 2022.
“The more we can help Canada’s allies in northern Europe, the more enemy nations will get the message that they don’t get carte blanche in the Arctic,” he said.
According to the Arctic Business Index, a network of research institutes and analysts in the Far North, Canada’s investment in the territory’s defense is consistently at the bottom of the eight countries that share the Arctic, behind Russia, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Along with Greenland, Canada has historically had the lowest spending.
Last year, after repeated complaints from Trump, Canada met NATO’s target of spending 2% of its GDP on defense, or about 63 billion Canadian dollars ($45 billion). This compares to a low of just 1% in 2014.
Neil O’Rourke, Canadian Coast Guard director general of fleet and maritime services, said he and a Danish defense colleague realized years ago that if either country suffered a serious incident in the Arctic, they should call each other first.
“Up north, we’re right across the water and it makes a lot more sense to share resources than to get help from the south,” O’Rourke said in an interview. He said Canada is also trying to learn more from Norway about how its maritime services handle emergency towing of ships.
Rob Huebert, an Arctic expert at the University of Calgary, said cooperation with the U.S. remains crucial, noting that the country produces arguably the most advanced military weapons and that Canada’s “military remains heavily dependent on the U.S. to protect its northernmost regions.”
“When we talk about warfighting capability, that means working with the U.S. military,” he said. Huebert said Carney’s “March trip to observe a Norwegian-led NATO exercise in Bardufoss may be an indication that the country’s approach is changing.”
“Until recently, Canada’s participation in NATO’s Arctic exercises in the Nordic countries was only symbolic,” he said. “But then, because of Trump, we suddenly decide we’d better do something with the Nordic countries.”