Germany sends navy to Arctic to counter Russia
Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, said on Monday that the Bundeswehr (armed forces) would 'show its presence' in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions with patrol vessels.
'Maritime threats are increasing … Russia is militarising the Arctic. We are seeing an increasing activity of Russian submarines operating in that area,' Mr Pistorius said at a press conference in Copenhagen.
'As early as this year, Germany will show its presence in the North Atlantic and the Arctic,' he added.
The announcement comes as Russia continues to build up its forces in the Arctic, where the melting of ice caps has opened up new shipping routes and access to raw materials.
Moscow is also expanding its fleet of icebreaker ships and cargo vessels, with one senior official announcing plans last month to build at least five new icebreakers.
At the same time, tensions between Western allies over the Arctic have increased due to Donald Trump's hopes of annexing the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland.
Denmark's government announced in early 2025 that it would spend 14.6 billion kroner (£1.96bn) on building up security in the region, in tandem with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which is also a Danish overseas territory.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Pistorius added: 'Along the route, we will exercise with our allies in the region, and we have planned the first port call of a German navy ship to Nuuk in Greenland. We will then, for the first time, take part in the Canadian Arctic exercise, Nanook.'
German submarines, patrol aircraft and frigates will be deployed to show 'our commitment to that region', he said.
The new patrols are part of Germany 's wider goal of playing a much larger role in defending the West from Russia, in response to the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, has lifted government borrowing limits on defence projects worth more than one per cent of GDP and has vowed to make the Bundeswehr the 'strongest conventional army' in Europe.
His new government has set itself a target of increasing defence spending to five per cent of GDP, in line with other Nato allies, ending a decades-long German policy of taking a back seat on global security.
Berlin is also considering a return to conscription to help build up the Bundeswehr, while Mr Merz has announced a 500bn euro (£428bn) special fund to rebuild the country's crumbling infrastructure, which would be used as a transit network by Nato if war breaks out with Russia.
The German navy has also taken the commanding role at CTF Baltic, a new multinational naval headquarters in Rostock, a city on the northern Baltic Coast, which monitors suspicious Russian ship activity in the region.
Germany's navy deployed the Hessen, a frigate, to patrol the Red Sea last year as part of an EU mission to protect commercial ships from Houthi rocket attacks launched from war-torn Yemen.
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