NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen agreed at a meeting on Tuesday that allies need to focus on strengthening defences in the Arctic, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters.

The Secretary-General of NATO, Mark Rutte, and the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, have agreed on the need to strengthen defenses in the Arctic, according to a Reuters source knowledgeable about the discussions.

Denmark has unveiled plans to allocate around DKr14bn (equivalent to $1.96bn) for the enhancement of its military capabilities in the Arctic and North Atlantic territories. The consensus on this allocation was reached by the political parties including the Greenlandic and Faroese Governments that support the 2024-2033 Danish Defence Agreement.

After a series of suspected undersea cable cuttings, NATO has launched a new surveillance and deterrence mission to protect critical infrastructure under the Baltic Sea.

Sweden on Sunday said it had seized a ship suspected of having damaged a fibre-optic cable under the Baltic Sea linking the country to Latvia, which sent a warship to investigate the latest apparent act of sabotage.

A Bulgarian shipping company on Monday denied that one of its ships had intentionally damaged an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland