Media: Camp Viking becomes centrepiece of Britain’s northern deterrence strategy

Britain is intensifying its Arctic military posture as geopolitical tensions rise across the northern hemisphere, a development highlighted in a POLITICO analysis examining growing concerns over Russian activity and the mounting strategic implications of U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed push for control of Greenland.

In northern Norway, Britain’s Royal Marines are conducting advanced cold-weather operations at Camp Viking, a facility established in 2023 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Training includes survival in temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius, immersion through ice holes, and endurance exercises, continuing a British tradition dating back to the Cold War.

Camp Viking is expanding rapidly and is set to host 1,500 personnel this spring, rising to 2,000 next year. Britain is “effectively doubling” its Royal Marine presence in Norway over three years, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told POLITICO.

Exercises conducted there reflect missions that would follow a NATO Article 5 activation. Brigadier Jaimie Norman, commander of the U.K. Commando Forces, told Cooper and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide: “We are no longer at peace… We see ourselves on a continuum that has war on one end to peace on the other, and we are somewhere on that continuum.”

While northern Europe reinforces deterrence, the western Arctic faces a separate political crisis as Trump pushes for U.S. ownership of Greenland, prompting widespread diplomatic strain. Melting ice caps have increased traffic through Arctic shipping lanes, now busier with Russian and Chinese vessels. Eide, meeting Cooper after returning from Ukraine, expressed regret that attention must be split, stating they would prefer to focus more on Ukraine and “less on other things.”

Cooper and Eide are backing an emerging concept for an “Arctic Sentry” NATO mission to counter Russian threats and signal continued European engagement, though operational details remain unclear. Such a mission could extend northern Norway–style exercises into Greenland and its surrounding lanes, which have seen increased shadow-fleet traffic and suspected cable sabotage.

Cooper stressed the indivisibility of regional security, stating: “The security of the Arctic is all linked,” citing threats from Russia’s Northern Fleet and vulnerabilities in undersea infrastructure. She added: “You can’t look at any one bit of Arctic security on its own… Some of the Russian threat is through its Northern Fleet and into the Atlantic.”

Eide underscored the immediate risk on Norway’s border, noting the proximity of the Kola Peninsula: “That region has the largest conglomeration of nuclear weapons in the world… If there is a crisis, this area will immediately be a centre of gravity.”

As Europe tries to balance deterrence and diplomacy, uncertainty persists over Trump’s intentions. A U.K. official told POLITICO that some believe he seeks security gains or economic opportunities in Greenland, while “there is one school of thought that ultimately, he just wants to take it … he just wants to make America bigger.”

By Tamilla Hasanova