General Alexis Gregory Grinkovich

And North Korean combat troops remain in Russia on Ukraine's border.

And of course, there's a confluence between Russia, Iran, and Venezuela and their dark fleet of oil tankers that is helping to fund the war.

In the Arctic and the high north, we see a similar trend.

Russian and Chinese vessels are conducting more and more joint patrols.

Chinese icebreakers and research vessels are in Arctic waters and their research is not for peaceful purposes.

It's to gain a military advantage.

Russia, meanwhile, continues testing advanced capabilities in the Barents Sea.

As new shipping routes emerge and new resources are discovered, the Arctic only grows in strategic importance.

And all of this comes in the midst of an increasing hybrid threat, airspace violations, GPS and GNSS interference, and the shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea threatening underwater infrastructure.

In short, the Arctic and Northern Europe by extension has become a front line for strategic competition.

Within NATO, Allied Command Operations, the command that SACEUR oversees, has taken steps to strengthen our deterrent posture, much of which is oriented in that northern region here.

Just over a year ago, we established Baltic Sentry, an activity to protect that critical underwater infrastructure.

In this past fall, we developed Eastern Sentry to increase our agility and further integrate our air and missile defenses on the eastern flank.

More recently, in just the past month, we've realigned the boundaries of our joint commands, and now Joint Force Command Norfolk brings together NATO's activities in the Arctic under one command, allowing us to better defend all allies in Europe, in the Arctic, and the strategic approaches to North America.

Allies are also working together closely on Arctic issues.

At a recent Arctic Chief of Defense Conference, we agreed to increase our understanding of activity in the Arctic, to enhance our domain awareness, and to increase our own activities and exercises in the High North.

In short, military cooperation in this region has never been stronger.

Moving forward, we intend to expand our intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, to improve our infrastructure and logistics for military mobility, and to strengthen our presence with Arctic-capable forces, many of those forces here in Sweden.

With seven of eight Arctic nations inside the Alliance, the other one being Russia, we will and we can get this right.

Now what's Sweden's role?