Germany, Norway vow to step up N. Atlantic surveillance amid Russian threat

By AFP and Global Watch | 2025-08-07

NATO allies Germany and Norway have agreed to step up surveillance against maritime and airborne "threats" in the northern Atlantic region amid high tensions with Russia over the Ukraine war.

"Germany and Norway aim to ensure stability and security in maritime areas, including in the High North," said a joint statement released on July 21 as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed security with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Berlin.

The two countries reaffirmed their "unwavering support for Ukraine as it defends its freedom, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity against Russia's continued war of aggression."

Berlin and Oslo said that "the North Atlantic, including the strategically crucial Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) and Bear gaps and adjacent waters, and the North and Baltic Seas, are crucial for both Norwegian and German security."

This, they said, was why their armed forces trained and patrolled the seas together and "cooperate closely under NATO's Regional Plans," the statement added.

During the Cold War, NATO kept close watch on the so-called GIUK gap, the key passageway for Soviet submarines and naval vessels from Arctic bases to enter the Atlantic Ocean.

Germany and Norway said they would strengthen their "surveillance and control over these strategic areas to counter potential threats, including maritime and airborne activities."

'A strategic focus'

They said that their cooperation in the North Atlantic and North Sea would include "enhanced protection of critical underwater infrastructure."

Germany already announced in early July that it would begin sending navy ships to patrol Arctic waters amid a rising military buildup in the region by Russia and China.

The expanding presence of Russia and China in the region -- marked by joint military exercises and growing influence -- has prompted calls for a stronger US and allied military presence in the region.

A US-based military think tank is urging the Pentagon to establish an Arctic Combined Interagency Task Force to offset the two powers and safeguard the region's rising strategic importance.

"Such an interagency task force construct could bridge the seams of the theater and make the Arctic a strategic focus," William Woityra and Grant Thomas, both captains of the US Coast Guard, wrote in an article published in March by the US Naval Institute, a nonprofit military association that focuses on national security.

The US Defense Department has called for spending more resources in the Arctic to keep pace with China and Russia. A Pentagon strategy report issued in July 2024 urged more investment to upgrade sensors, communications and space-based technologies in the region.

NATO is beefing up its defenses in the Arctic region, including holding the largest military drills by the Western military alliance since the end of the Cold War. The exercises in March 2024 involved about 90,000 troops from all 32 NATO states and simulated an attack on the organization's frigid Arctic fringe.