Agreement reached: Denmark boosts presence in the Arctic and North Atlantic

Three new Arctic ships, additional long-range drones with advanced imaging capabilities, and reinforcement of satellite capacity are some of the initiatives in the first partial agreement for the Arctic and North Atlantic, which the government and the parties behind the defense agreement have agreed upon in close collaboration with the Faroe Islands’ government and Greenland’s Naalakkersuisut.

There is also agreement that the security-political situation requires further initiatives, leading to the signing of a partial agreement 2 on the Arctic in the first half of 2025.

“We are facing serious security-political challenges. The Defense Intelligence Service assesses that the threat level in the Arctic and North Atlantic has worsened. Therefore, we need to significantly strengthen the Defense’s presence in these regions. This is what we achieve with this partial agreement, which has been developed in close collaboration with the Faroe Islands’ government and Greenland’s Naalakkersuisut. The agreement lays a foundation that we will build upon in the first half of 2025,” says Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen.

With the partial agreement, the parties and Naalakkersisut aim to enhance surveillance and sovereignty assertion in the regions. At the same time, it is crucial to support close allies and NATO in their tasks in the Arctic and North Atlantic, thereby enhancing defense and security. In total, there are initiatives worth approximately 14.6 billion Danish Kroner.

The partial agreement is also intended to strengthen societal security.

When implementing the partial agreement, emphasis is placed on ensuring that investments support local employment and businesses in the Faroe Islands and Greenland, benefiting these regions as much as possible.

There is also an agreement to strengthen cooperation on intelligence and research, as well as to upgrade the facilities of the Arctic Command in Nuuk so that the Defense can operate under more secure conditions, with increased staffing to manage the growing number of tasks related to surveillance, sovereignty assertion, support for allies, and search and rescue in the Arctic and North Atlantic.

“It is crucial that the strengthened efforts in the Arctic and North Atlantic are carried out in close collaboration with the Faroe Islands and Greenland, so that the initiatives are as locally anchored as possible and benefit the civil society. We ensure this with this agreement, and it is important for me to emphasize that there is a need for further investment in defense and security in the region,” says Troels Lund Poulsen.

The parties to the agreement agree to allocate 14.6 billion Kroner to the initiatives in this partial agreement, of which 11.8 billion Kroner is allocated to military capacities for enhanced surveillance, sovereignty assertion, etc., 0.3 billion Kroner to initiatives for increased presence, 2.3 billion Kroner to deployment and communication initiatives, and 0.3 billion Kroner to other initiatives.