European leaders are gathering to discuss how to secure their Arctic flank as great-power rivalry intensifies in the High North.
Hosted by Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, leaders from across the European Union will arrive on September 13 in Rovaniemi, a town on the edge of Finland’s polar region. At stake is the bloc’s influence in the area as President Donald Trump covets Greenland, Russia increasingly threatens Europe, and China seeks to gain a foothold.
“Because the race is with Russians and the Chinese for use and control of the Arctic, there is a joint interest” for the EU and the U.S. to act together, Orpo said in an interview. The Arctic is “where the interests converge” given the U.S. also wants Europe to shoulder the burden over its defenses, and given it’s where Russia maintains some of its most critical military sites, he added.
The discussion come as the bloc is preparing a refresh of its Arctic strategy, dating from before Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine. That’s expected to influence how common funds are allocated.
In a communiqué due to be published after their meeting, the leaders are set to “call for the European Union to take on a more strategic and proactive role in the European Arctic” and commit “adequate resources” in line with evolving geopolitical realities, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg News. The text could still change.
The draft statement also emphasizes the need for more funds in military mobility — infrastructure needed to move NATO troops and equipment. It specifies “critical and urgent needs” in areas such as transport connections, including stronger road and rail links, digital connectivity and satellite technologies, as well as better capabilities to respond to hybrid threats.
“Russia’s ambitions to increase its influence in the Arctic, combined with its hostility toward Europe, including the increase in hybrid activities, highlight the need to strengthen the EU’s Arctic policy,” said the preliminary text.
Finland’s 1,340-kilometer (833-mile) frontier with Russia runs from the Baltic Sea north toward the Arctic and past the Kola Peninsula, covering half of NATO’s, and the EU’s, eastern flank. The Kola Peninsula is home to a crucial part of Russia’s nuclear deterrent, including its Northern Fleet and ballistic-missile submarines, as well as significant air power.
“Europe is defended here,” Orpo said.
The European Commission has proposed €131 billion ($152 billion) for defense, security and space in the next budget, five times the funding available under the current framework, while outlays into military mobility would increase tenfold. The EU is also investing €200 million ($232 million) in Greenland as part of a campaign to tighten links to the island.
The Arctic Summit is the third such gathering organized by Finland in less than two years as part of an effort to increase understanding of how severe the security threats in the region are, following the Eastern Flank Summit in Helsinki in December 2025, and the North-South Summit on European security challenges in Saariselkä a year before that.
Attending the summit are German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, President of the European Council António Costa and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. They’re joined by Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Síkela, as well as prime ministers or presidents from Denmark, Poland, Romania and the Baltic states. France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot is arriving instead of President Emmanuel Macron.
“Europe has to be so strong that it won't cross Russia’s mind to challenge us here in the north or the Baltics, or anywhere else, with any test of the Article 5 or EU solidarity,” Orpo said in the interview warning that Russia’s trajectory has clearly worsened, a threat confirmed by recent hybrid attacks across Europe.
“All these events that have happened here, air space violations, instrumentalized immigration, hybrid and cyber-attacks, Russia's outright threats — that's woken Europe up quite well," he said. “Russia’s actions are becoming more serious and more overt.”
Russia’s European neighbors have been targets of repeated airspace violations, persistent cyberattacks and other sabotage, and they’ve seen damage to Baltic Sea communications and power cables involving vessels linked to Moscow’s shadow fleet. Organized migrant flows have also put pressure on countries including Finland, Lithuania and Poland, with Helsinki closing all road crossings on its eastern border already in 2023 and completing a fence covering 200 kilometers of that demarcation earlier this month.
The Finnish military expects Moscow to concentrate more forces in the region after the war in Ukraine ends.
Finland hasn’t set a specific overall funding target for its Arctic priorities, but Orpo said this autumn will be decisive for the negotiations.
“For me, the European Arctic Summit is a unique opportunity to gather input from top European leaders for the new Arctic Strategy, and to translate our offer into a more strategic, more focused and more visible presence in the region,” Síkela told Bloomberg. “The Arctic is changing rapidly, and its geopolitical importance is growing with it. Europe has a strong partnership offer for the region, based on reliability, equality and shared values.”
The summit will also discuss proposals for European countries to pool or jointly own icebreaking capacity, Orpo said. Several countries, including the U.S. are seeking to acquire more icebreakers as climate change opens the Arctic to increased marine traffic and security concerns. Finland will build four of 11 new U.S. icebreakers and wants to offer its extensive expertise in designing and building the vessels to the rest of Europe.
“The important point is that Europe recognizes Finland’s special position on the Arctic eastern flank and, more broadly, the strategic importance of the entire North,” Orpo said. “Strengthening the North is not only in Finland’s interest — it’s in the interest of Europe as a whole.”
