Article content continued

The enhanced security is geared to protecting oil and gas production facilities from “terrorists and other potential threats,” he said.

Mr. Putin said one priority will be legal formalization of the outer boundary of Russia’s continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean “in line with international law.” Canada has conflicting claims with Russia over parts of the Arctic seabed.

General Rick Hillier, the former chief of the defence staff, says nobody anticipates a military bid by Russia in the Arctic. But its increasing military strength gives Mr. Putin the ability to flex his muscles for sovereignty, settlement and resource exploitation purposes. “Unless we, the Arctic countries outside Russia, are there in equal strength, we realistically hand much of the Arctic to him.”

Some NATO members including Norway see the alliance as a counterweight to any Russian expansionism. However, as a Wikileaks cable revealed, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has opposed the inclusion of the Arctic on NATO’s agenda. Mr. Harper warned NATO’s secretary-general that the alliance has “no role” in the Arctic and that pressure for involvement is coming from nations who want to exert their influence in a region “where they don’t belong,” according to the U.S. diplomatic cable.

At NATO’s 2010 summit, Norway wanted Arctic issues included in the text of the communiqué. Canada opposed the move and Norway was forced to back down.

One senior alliance diplomat said when the Norwegian foreign minister visited Brussels to brief the alliance on Norway’s views on the Arctic, Canada asked to remove the issue from the agenda of all future meetings. “The Secretary-General was forced to say you can’t block anything, if it is important to one ally. It was completely bizarre,” he said.