Arctic Yearbook 2014 | Page 424

Arctic Yearbook 2014 424 (MOD: Copenhagen, 24 June 2009); A special Arctic strategy was adopted in 2011. (Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Greenland Department of Foreign Affairs and Faroe Islands Foreign Service, Kongerigets Danmarks Strategi for Arktis 2011–2020 [The Kingdom of Denmark’s strategy for the Arctic 2011–2020] (MFA: Copenhagen, Aug. 2011).; In July 2009 the Danish Parliament approved a plan for an Arctic military command and task force to be set up by 2014 (Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greenland Department of Foreign Affairs and Faroe Islands Foreign Service; The Arctic Military Command will merge the Greenland and Faroe Islands commands and will be headquartered in Nuuk, Greenland (ibid.) 17. Norwegian defence policy is guided by the 2007 Soria Moria Declaration on International Policy, which gave the north of Norway and Svalbard a priority in national defence. (Office of the Norwegian Prime Minister, ‘The Soria Moria declaration on international policy’, 4 Feb. 2007, ; Norwegian Ministry of Defence (MOD), Norwegian Defence: Facts and Figures 2011 (MOD: Oslo, 2011), p. 30. 18. The US Arctic Policy was firstly presented in 1994, than it was replaced during the President Bush administration in 2009 - White House, ‘Arctic region policy’, National Security Presidential Directive no. 66 and Home land Security Presidential Directive no. 26, 9 Jan. 2009, ; The Arctic was not mentioned at all in a January 2012 document outlining security priorities for the 21st century. Later on, in May 2013, the US published its National Strategy For the Arctic Region, http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/nat_arctic_strategy.pdf The new strategy is being unveiled as the United States begins preparations to take over the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council. (http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/11/u-sunveils-military-strategy-arctic/ ) 19. Russia’s latest Arctic military exercises took place in March 2014, when paratroopers (a 350-strong battalion) landed on the New Siberian Islands. Such an exercise was realized for the first time in Russian history (Ria Novosti 2014a). 20. The most prominent military capabilities located in the US part of the Arctic are connected with the air force basis in Alaska, which are dealing with Russian far east, and – as the most recent development – the built up anti-missile capabilities tailored for countering missile threat from north east Asia. It means that the most important US military capabilities in the Arctic, notably Alaska, are there to counter security threats and challenges rooted in other-than-Arctic regions. The American military capabilities directly associated with the Arctic remain limited, if we do not count with air force dealing with Russian air forces and long-range strategic bombers. 21. Norway has always played an irreplaceable role from the NATO strategic point of view. The latest NATO military exercise “Cold Response” took place in March 2014 in Harstad (northern Norway), which included nearly 16,000 troops from 16 different NATO countries to train high-intensity operations in an extremely challenging coldPadrtová