Russia said it was seriously concerned by the arrival of NATO military personnel in Greenland, a mineral-rich island in the Arctic that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to seize.

“The situation unfolding in the high latitudes is of serious concern to us,” the Russian Embassy in Belgium, where NATO is headquartered, said in a statement published late Wednesday (January 15, 2025).

NATO is “building up its military presence there under the false pretext of a growing threat from Moscow and Beijing,” the embassy added.