EU leaders met in Rovaniemi, northern Finland, to reaffirm the Arctic's importance to European security, weeks before Brussels is due to publish its first updated Arctic policy since 2021. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo called Russia the "most significant threat" to the region and urged concrete EU action, including funding for a European icebreaker fleet and better surveillance of Russian military and shadow-fleet activity. The push matters because melting sea ice, Nordic critical minerals and Greenland (Denmark's autonomous, resource-rich Arctic territory) are turning the high north into a strategic frontier for trade, energy and defence.