Greenland

NATO actually currently has five more military sites in total than Russia, but the Russian military's bases are far larger. The Simons Foundation Canada has documented in a fresh study that Russia has 32 "continuously attended military sites" in the Arctic region as of 2024.

Notably the outposts located Franz Josef Land, Kotelny Island, and Wrangel Island are able to house up to 150 ground troops each.

One of NATO's founding members, Norway, maintains 15 "continuously attended military sites". And per The Simons Foundation report, other NATO members have as follows:

• United States: 10 Arctic sites
• Canada: 8 Arctic sites
• Denmark: 3 Arctic sites, which are in Greenland
• Iceland: 1 Arctic site

Still, Russia's military has warned that "the Arctic is a region for potential future conflict" amid the global build-up there, according to Russia’s Commander of the Northern Fleet, Aleksandr Moiseyev.

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As for China-Russian cooperation in the far north, the fresh WSJ report observes in the following:

That support has been prominent in the Arctic, where Chinese companies are significant investors and equipment suppliers in Russian energy projects including the Yamal LNG and Arctic 2 LNG projects. 

Russia, in return, has been shipping fuel to China using its so-called shadow fleet, by which sanctioned vessels make illicit deliveries of Russian oil to markets in Asia. Last year saw a record volume for transit cargo through the Northern Sea Route from northwestern Russia to the Bering Strait, according to Rosatom, the Russian agency that oversees the waterway. Almost all of that cargo went from Russia to China, and more than half was crude oil. The total volume remains a fraction of crude-oil traffic through the Suez Canal: While the northern route’s shorter distance can cut transit times by two weeks, sea ice remains a treacherous obstacle despite shrinking ice cover.

Jens Frederik Nielsen (born 22 June 1991) is a Greenlandic politician and badminton player. He is the current leader of the Demokraatit party, and formerly served as the Minister of Labour and Mineral Resources during the Kielsen VII Cabinet.^[1]

During the 2025 Greenlandic general election, Nielsen received 3,939 personal votes. Nielsen received more votes than incumbent Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede, who received 2,679.^[2]

Nielsen is opposed to the proposed sale of Greenland to the United States.^[3]

The Democrats (Greenlandic: Demokraatit [temokʁaːt͡sit]; Danish: Demokraterne, D) is a social liberal political party in Greenland.

The party used to be sceptical of Greenlandic independence and even further self-governance.^[8] Now it supports independence as the end goal of a gradual process that starts with increased self-determination.^[9] Two of the major priorities in its programme are improving educational standards and the housing situation.^[2]

In terms of country of birth, the population is estimated to be of 89.7% Greenlandic multiethnic European-Inuit origin, 7.8% Danish, 1.1% other Nordic and 1.4% other. The multi-ethnic population of European-Inuit represent people of Danish, Norwegian and to a lesser degree of Faroese, Icelandic, Dutch (whalers), German^[5] and American descent.

A 2015 wide genetic study of Greenlanders found modern-day Inuit in Greenland are direct descendants of the first Inuit pioneers of the Thule culture who arrived in the 13th century, with approximately 25% admixture of the European colonisers from the 16th century. Despite previous speculations, no evidence of Viking settlers predecessors has been found.^[194]