‘We’re ready to defend the Arctic,’ Carney says alongside German, Norwegian leaders

BARDUFOSS — Canada and its allies are prepared to defend the Arctic, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday in Bardufoss, Norway, after observing NATO’s Cold Response exercises.

He held a news conference alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Asked by a German reporter whether the “conflict” over the Trump administration’s demands for Greenland is settled, the leaders emphasized Greenland’s independence.

“It’s up to the people in Greenland and the King of Denmark to trace the future for the people in Greenland,” Store said.

“Any attempt to say that a country can take land from another country is unacceptable. It’s not acceptable to international law, and especially something which should be unheard of among allies.”

Carney said he fully supported that statement and added allies are “prepared, individually and collectively, to defend the Arctic.”

“What this operation is about, this training exercise, is to further build those capabilities, against Russia, against any external threat,” Carney said.

Carney is visiting at the invitation of Norway, which hosts these joint NATO exercises every two years.

This year, about 32,000 troops from 14 different nations are taking part in the exercises, which are aimed at enhancing the alliance’s Arctic military capabilities. Twenty-five thousand troops are taking part in the Norwegian exercises, while the remaining 7,000 are in neighbouring Finland.

The Canadian Armed Forces would not say exactly how many Canadian troops are taking part.

Norwegian military officials described the exercise as covering “everything from space to submarines.”

The demonstration put on for Carney, Store and Merz on Friday began with the three leaders being brought to a field outside Bardufoss in a tank to watch Norwegian and German troops execute a variety of Arctic drills.

The drills began with advance patrols on cross-country skis and snowmobiles.

An unmanned ground vehicle nicknamed the “R2-D2” shot down aerial drones once the advance patrols cleared the area.

With the aerial adversaries taken care of, a squadron of tanks rumbled through the snow, engaging in fire drills with green-clad soldiers portraying enemy combatants hiding in nearby woods.

Once the tanks were close enough to the treeline, they provided suppressing fire as Arctic camo-clad soldiers exited a tank and engaged the soldiers in green.

Lt. -Col. Robert Girouard, commanding officer of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment, said this kind of training is important because the Arctic has a very different meaning in Europe than it does in Canada.

For example, on Thursday the Canadian delegation left Yellowknife, where there were dry winter conditions and wind chill pushing the temperature to nearly -40 degrees.

Carney was in the N.W.T. capital to announce $32 billion for northern defence and infrastructure projects. The money is part of Canada’s 2022 commitment to Norad’s modernization.

The new funding for base infrastructure includes plans to improve airfields to accommodate F-35 fighter jets, and to build or repurpose hangars, ammunition compounds, fuel facilities and housing.

During the drills in Norway on Friday, troops were still operating in snow-covered fields but with the added challenge of rain.

“One of the things we’ve learned is we really have to go back to basics as far as what we call fieldcraft and our ability to operate and hide from adversary capability,” Girouard said during a media scrum following the demonstration Friday.

Girouard said such exercises demonstrate the need to “harden” military equipment so that it can operate and survive in any conditions.

The Canadian Special Operations Regiment primarily operates deep behind enemy lines, Giroaurd said, and taking part in these drills provides valuable lessons in how the weather can challenge both communications and supply lines.

Carney is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Store on Saturday. They’re expected to talk about foreign investment, clean energy, critical minerals, aerospace and artificial intelligence.

The two are also expected to talk about global energy security as the war in Iran continues to disrupt global supply chains.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press