Ibrahim Hamdi Hacicaferoglu and Serdar Dincel
12 January 2026•Update: 12 January 2026
ISTANBUL
NATO’s top military commander in Europe said on Sunday that the Arctic region — and by extension Northern Europe — has become a strategic "front line for strategic competition."
Speaking at a security conference in Sweden, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), said that Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and several other countries were deepening their cooperation.
“We see this clearly in Ukraine, while President Trump pushes for a peaceful resolution to a horrible war, China continues to fund Putin’s war machine,” he said.
"Iran continues to supply technology and weapons and North Korean combat troops remain in Russia on Ukraine's border.
“And of course, there’s a confluence between Russia, Iran and Venezuela and their dark fleet of oil tankers that is helping to fund the war in the Arctic,” he added.
Also known as the shadow fleet, the so-called dark fleet consists of about 1,000 vessels that use deceptive practices to hide their role in shipping sanctioned oil. In recent weeks, the US has seized several such tankers moving in and out of Venezuelan waters, aiming to pressure Caracas’ interim government and disrupt these operations.
Grynkewich said a similar pattern is emerging in the High North, with Russian and Chinese vessels increasingly conducting joint patrols.
"Chinese icebreakers and research vessels are in Arctic waters, and their research is not for peaceful purposes, it's to gain a military advantage.
Russia, meanwhile, continues testing advanced capabilities in the Barents Sea, he said.
Describing NATO allies’ commitments to increase defense spending at the 2025 Hague Summit as “historic,” Grynkewich said money alone was not enough, calling for more equipment, weapons and ammunition to be delivered into allied military inventories.
