Oslo: Norway needs to scale up and modernise its defence as Russia's military build-up in the Arctic is creating a more uncertain security situation, its military chief said on Thursday.

NATO member Norway shares a small border with Russia in the Arctic, where Oslo has noticed increased Russian military activity. Other nordic states have expressed concern over Russian air and naval activity and over a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Flexing its muscle ... Russian military jets fly above the Kremlin. Russia's new stance has Norway worried. Credit:Reuters

"Our neighbour in the east has built up its military capacity, also in areas close to us," Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen told a news conference following a report on future defence.

"They have shown that they are willing to use military force to achieve political ambitions," he said in a reference to Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last year.