OSLO, May 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Norway announced Tuesday it had designated the small town of Bodo, north of the Arctic Circle, to permanently host a NATO air operations control centre.

The announcement from the Norwegian government comes as neighbouring Russia is seeking to assert its power in the Arctic by modernising old bases and establishing new ones.

During a ministerial meeting in February, NATO countries agreed to establish the alliance's third European Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Norway, leaving Oslo to decide its exact location.

The choice was between Bodo, which is already home to the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, and Rygge in the southeast of the country.

"We want NATO to have a foothold in the North," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told broadcaster TV2.

No date was announced for the opening of the new command centre, which will be tasked with coordinating air surveillance as well as planning and executing NATO military air operations in the region.

The military alliance already has two such command centres in Europe, one in Germany, the other in Spain.