BRUSSELS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - NATO member countries are discussing the next steps to collectively keep the Arctic safe, alliance chief Mark Rutte said on Monday, the latest sign of work among allies to satisfy
U.S. President Donald Trump, who says he wants to take over Greenland.
"All allies agree on the importance of the Arctic and Arctic security," Rutte told a press conference in Croatia. "With sea lanes opening up, there is a risk that the Russians and the Chinese will be more active."
Rutte said discussions on Arctic security were already under way since last year, and member countries were now "discussing the next step to that, how to make sure that we give practical follow up on those discussions."
Trump said on Friday that the U.S. needs to own Greenland to prevent Russia or China from occupying it in the future.
Greenland is an autonomous part of the kingdom of Denmark and houses a U.S. airbase under international treaties. Danish and Greenlandic officials say the island is not for sale, and that security concerns should be resolved among allies.
European diplomats told Reuters that discussions were ongoing about a possible NATO operation to boost security in the Arctic, as officials search for ways to address U.S. concerns.
No decisions have been made, the diplomats said, but some officials have suggested that an operation could be modelled on NATO's operations to boost security on its eastern flank, Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry.
A German government spokesperson said on Monday that discussions about further strengthening security in the Arctic region were currently taking place within NATO.
(Reporting by Lili Bayer, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Inti LandauroEditing by Lili Bayer and Louise Rasmussen)
