Danish minister of defence visited Operation NANOOK 2011

Operation NANOOK is a recurring Canadian exercise in the Arctic, which in 2011 will be conducted between 4-26 August. As part of the Danish-Canadian cooperation in the Arctic, two Danish naval vessels – the HVIDBJØRNEN and the EJNAR MIKKELSEN – will participate in Operation NANOOK. The US Coast Guard will also participate in the exercise.

“I am very pleased with our positive and constructive cooperation with Canada in the Arctic. It is a very special and challenging environment to operate in. It is therefore only natural that we cooperate with other international actors to the greatest possible extent”, Gitte Lillelund Bech explains.

Operation NANOOK 11 is composed of two main exercises. The first exercise will primarily focus on surveillance and sovereignty claims. In this exercise, Canadian and Danish naval vessels, together with US Coast Guard ships, will, among other things, conduct search and rescue operations, fisheries inspections, and marine surveillance in Davis Strait, Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound. The second exercise is a Canadian emergency exercise, including response to a simulated major air disaster and maritime emergencies in the Arctic, among other things.

“The Honourable Minister of National Defence, Mr. MacKay, Associate Minister Mr. Fantino and I all agree that our armed forces profit immensely from this cross-national exchange of experience. We also agree that we should further develop our Arctic cooperation in the future’, Gitte Lillelund Bech concludes.