| Welcome to the weekend issue of Brussels Edition, Bloomberg's daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union. Join us on Saturdays for deeper dives from our bureaus across Europe. OSLO — Donald Trump's threat to take over Greenland has focused the attention of other countries with Arctic interests. For Norway, that means its islands of Svalbard — 62,000 square kilometers (24,000 square miles) of ice and snow, with about 3,000 polar bears, some 2,500 inhabitants, including two Russian towns of about 200, and the only official Russian settlements on NATO territory. Some 1,100 km from the Russian Kola peninsula, the Norwegian community has long maintained close relationships with its neighbor.  Buildings in Longyearbyen on the Svalbard Archipelago, northern Norway. Photographer: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images But after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, visits have been cancelled and Norway's traditional national day parties have been scaled down. Now, with Trump eyeing Greenland, the small, highly international community in Longyearbyen, Svalbard's capital, is feeling the geopolitical tension even more, says Terje Aunevik, a local politician and head of the local council. Aunevik recently told Norwegian media that an increase in military budgets should include Svalbard, and ended up being called out by the Russian government, he said in an interview. Russia has accused Norway of breaching the Svalbard treaty of 1920, which prohibits militarization on the territory in peacetime, though Norway rejects the idea that it's supposed to be a demilitarized zone. Politicians much further south, in Norway's capital Oslo, are watching too. A towering stuffed polar bear greets all visitors to the Norwegian prime minister's office in Oslo. The polar bear, dubbed Nina, was killed on Svalbard 10 years ago after trying to eat a Czech tourist who was camping on the island.  A polar bear on pack ice north of Svalbard. Source: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket The bear serves as a reminder: Svalbard is as much a part of Norway as Oslo is, and we will defend it if we have to, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store recently told us. He's had his eyes on the North for years, and coined the term "high North, low tension" when he was foreign minister from 2005 to 2012. His vision is the same today, he says, even as he admits that pressure is rising. Aunevik still calls Svalbard "a peaceful oasis in the middle of superpower rivalry," describing it as a "fantastic place to live." He says he doesn't fear either Trump or Vladimir Putin's high-north ambitions. "It's in everyone's interest that Svalbard stays Norwegian," he says, noting it's the result of international cooperation, "not colonial behavior." — Heidi Taksdal Skjeseth, Oslo bureau chief | 
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