{"id":604923,"date":"2026-04-15T04:27:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604923\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T04:27:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:27:30","slug":"canada-nordic-countries-can-work-together-to-defend-the-arctic-finnish-president-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604923\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada, Nordic countries can work together to defend the Arctic, Finnish President says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb was in Ottawa on Tuesday for talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney and senior cabinet ministers.Ashley Fraser\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Canada can significantly bolster defence of the Arctic by working hand-in-hand with Nordic countries as part of an emerging NATO security pact, Finnish President Alexander Stubb says.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Globe and Mail Tuesday, the leader of Finland said the threat from Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s musings about annexing Greenland<\/a> have put the geopolitical spotlight on Arctic security.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us are saying, well, shouldn\u2019t we really focus on Arctic security? And especially together,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, it will cost a lot of money, but we\u2019re all increasing our defence expenditures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Finnish President is in Ottawa for talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> and senior cabinet ministers. He is also leading a high-level business delegation. The two leaders agreed to co-operate on cutting-edge technologies, critical minerals and Arctic security.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Speed is the new sovereignty in the Arctic<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Stubb said the wake-up call to better protect the Arctic came after Mr. Trump<\/a> talked about the \u201cterritorial acquisition,\u201d in Mr. Stubb\u2019s words, of Greenland, a semi-autonomous island that is part of Denmark. The American leader eventually backed down in the face of European and North Atlantic Treaty Organization opposition.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Mr. Stubb said Canada and its Nordic neighbours \u2013 Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland \u2013 need to step up their Arctic defences because of the continuing threat from Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moscow has been reinforcing its presence in the Arctic Circle with modern bases, multirole submarines and nuclear warheads. China has also been co-operating with Russia\u2019s military in the Arctic and is eyeing the strategic shipping routes that are opening up because of global warming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are only 100 kilometres away from Murmansk and the Kola Peninsula, where Russia has nuclear warheads, and those nuclear warheads are not directed at Helsinki, Stockholm or Oslo. They\u2019re directed at New York and Washington,\u201d Mr. Stubb said. <\/p>\n

He said NATO co-operation in the Arctic will be on the agenda at its July leaders summit in Ankara, Turkey.<\/p>\n

Nordic countries can work together on building frigates, corvettes and icebreakers while sharing Arctic know-how in troop training, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have one million men and women that have been trained through obligatory military service in the Arctic conditions,\u201d he said. \u201cSo there\u2019s many things we can do together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Stubb, who has been described in the media as a \u201cTrump whisperer,\u201d said the way to deal with the mercurial President is to be direct but cordial.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t sort of beat around the bush,\u201d he said, but noted that he, Mr. Carney and other European leaders speak to each other regarding conversations with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do co-ordinate a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat are we going to discuss, you know, what\u2019s the mood?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Finnish leader has talked of a NATO<\/a> 3.0 where the alliance returns to its initial role as deterrence against Russia, with more European sharing of the collective security burden.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Mr. Stubb said he believed NATO is moving toward this model. This means more defence industrial co-operation between European countries such as Finland in areas including shipbuilding for icebreakers.<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019s up to Ottawa, of course, \u201cto decide how much responsibility Canada wants to take\u201d for the security of Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, mentally, Canada is seen very much as part of Europe,\u201d he said of thinking on the continent.<\/p>\n

Nearly 60% of Canadians support becoming a full member of the European Union, poll says<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s most foundational security commitments are the defence of North American territory through the North American Aerospace Defence Command, or NORAD, in partnership with the United States, alongside its collective defence obligations under NATO.<\/p>\n

Could Canada ever join the European Union, the economic bloc of 27 member states?<\/p>\n

Mr. Stubb didn\u2019t directly answer a question on this, but said, \u201cThe closer we can bring Canada to the EU, the better.\u201d <\/p>\n

Polls in Canada indicate significant majority support for joining the EU.<\/p>\n

The Finnish President said he \u201cdoesn\u2019t know what the future relationship between Canada and the European Union\u201d will be, but noted he doesn\u2019t see a difference between Europe and Canada when he deals with Ottawa, either on the Coalition of the Willing helping Ukraine, on Nordic matters, or the Joint Expeditionary Force, a group of 10 like-minded countries that can deploy force to address crises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Finland’s President Alexander Stubb was in Ottawa on Tuesday for talks with Prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,714],"class_list":["post-604923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}