Trudeau, Nordic Allies Discuss China’s Growing Threat to Arctic During PM’s Iceland Visit

The Canadian Coast Guard's medium icebreaker Henry Larsen in Allen Bay during Operation Nanook in Canada's Arctic in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has held discussions with Canada’s Nordic allies about Beijing’s growing threat to Arctic sovereignty through its interest in natural resources and exploration in the region.

The prime minister told reporters on June 26 during his visit to Iceland that China’s recent activity in the Arctic came up as a point of discussion with Trudeau’s Nordic counterparts.

“There’s a recognition that China is styling itself as a near-Arctic nation, has interests in development, exploration, and perhaps eventual installation of natural-resource platforms or drilling platforms,” Trudeau said in response to questions from reporters on whether he and Nordic leaders had discussed China’s Arctic threat.

Trudeau is in the midst of a visit to Iceland where he is meeting with leaders of other Nordic countries like Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway to discuss a number of issues, one of which the Prime Minister’s Office says is “security in Europe and the Arctic.”

Trudeau told reporters that the leaders’ discussion on Beijing’s growing threat in the Arctic region comes as part of their talks focused on security in the central Arctic Ocean.

“That’s part of the conversations we’re having around the central Arctic Ocean and the responsibility all of us have as Nordic countries to make sure that we’re setting clear rules that will protect the public ocean,” Trudeau said, adding that the countries are looking to discourage “military uses” in the Arctic area.

Arctic Challenges

The prime minister’s comments on the matter come as military officials and experts warn that Beijing could challenge Canada’s presence in the Arctic in the near future.

Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre previously warned that China could challenge Canada’s Arctic sovereignty in the next 20 years, but military expert Robert Huebert told a House of Commons committee last October that he believes it will happen sooner.

“The time periods are so short, which means the problem is not 20 years. [The Chinese] are doing the capabilities studies right now,” Huebert told the Commons Standing Committee on National Defence on Oct. 25, 2022.

Lt. Gen. Alain Pelletier, deputy commander of NORAD, told the same committee on Nov. 1 that Canada’s ability to detect foreign incursions in its Arctic territories through its North Warning System is “very limited.”

“Especially given that the threat from China may be coming from the west coast,” Pelletier told the committee. “And the warning system is geared towards the threat coming from the Arctic, as that’s for what it was designed back in the early 1980s.”

The federal government has announced multi-billion dollar investments over the past year to upgrade Canada’s Arctic defence and NORAD equipment, and Defence Minister Anita Anand has said Ottawa will usher in the “backbone of a brand-new, northern approaches surveillance system to enhance surveillance and early warning threats to our continent.”

Andrew Chen contributed to this report.