NATO will this week integrate its Nordic nations under the U.S.-based Joint Force Command Norfolk in an effort to improve transatlantic security and boost the alliance’s positioning in the high north, NATO’s top commander Alexus Grynkewich told reporters on Thursday.
Under the new structure, all Nordic countries would fall under the headquarters based in the U.S. port of Norfolk, Virginia, which is oriented towards North Atlantic defence, instead of some countries in the region remaining under NATO’s Brunssum command in the Netherlands, which is responsible for NATO’s northeastern flank.
Finland joined NATO in 2023 and Sweden in 2024, after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine prompted the two countries to rethink their national security strategies.
Their accession to the now 32-member military alliance has strengthened NATO’s position in the north and the Baltic Sea region, leading to the command restructuring.
“With the alignment of our adversaries around the globe, it’s imperative that we strengthen the Euro-Atlantic area as much as possible, and reinforce our posture in the high north,” Grynkewich, a U.S. Air Force general serving as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told reporters at the alliance’s military headquarters outside the Belgian city of Mons.
“Norfolk is the strategic bridge between North America and Europe,” he said.
The Norfolk command will be responsible for the Arctic, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
(Reporting by Lili Bayer)
