By Maria Cheng
OTTAWA, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Canada plans to open two new consulates in Greenland and Anchorage, Alaska, as part of efforts to reinforce its presence in the Arctic, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to boost Canada’s military and security presence in the Arctic, a frozen and mineral-rich expanse that is of increasing interest to U.S. President Donald Trump as well as superpower rivals Russia and China.
In an interview with Reuters, Anand said the Arctic was Canada’s top foreign policy priority.
“The region is so, so important now as we see Russian infrastructure moving further and further north and as we see the Northwest Passage becoming easier to traverse because of melting polar ice caps,” she said.
Canada had planned to open a consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, in November but had to postpone because of bad weather. Anand said there was no date yet for when a Canadian consulate in Anchorage might open.
Earlier this year, Trump stoked tensions among Arctic nations by expressing an interest in acquiring Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Asked how Canada was responding to Trump’s desire to annex Greenland, Anand said she has been pressing her counterparts in the Nordic countries “to ensure there’s no mistake about the importance of the Arctic and certainly Canada’s sovereignty.”
She also said she had recently spoken with Mark Rutte, the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and urged him to strengthen resources in the Arctic.
“My question to him was, ‘What is NATO going to tangibly do?’ Because Canada is going to fortify our presence in the Arctic,” Anand said, referring to Carney’s plans to increase defense spending to 2% of the country’s GDP this year and to 5% by 2035.
Anand said she plans to invite a group of foreign ministers to visit the Canadian Arctic next summer.
(Reporting by Maria Cheng; Editing by Nia Williams)
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