NATO coordinates Arctic defense plan. Japan’s teary goodbye to last pair of pandas.

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0:21Today on State of the World, NATO launches a coordinated Arctic defense strategy in reaction to Chinese and Russian ambitions in the region. and to President Trump's threats to take over Greenland.

0:38You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Thursday, February 12th. I'm Christine Arismath. We'll also go to Tokyo, where residents bid a teary goodbye as the zoo's last remaining pair of pandas return to China. First to Brussels, where NATO's launching a new mission in the Arctic. This after President Trump's claims that the U.S. should take over Greenland to fill security gaps in the region. Reporter Terry Schultz has more. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced the launch of Arctic Sentry with great enthusiasm, explaining, as President Trump did, that Russia and China are present in the region and have high ambitions to gain a further foothold.

1:27For the first time now, we will bring everything we do in the Arctic together under one command. We will be able to leverage what we are doing much more effectively and having a bigger impact. The mission, which is called an enhanced vigilance activity, is short on details for now, other than to explain it will be headquartered at NATO's Norfolk, Virginia Command, and that if it finds security gaps, it will fill them, employing the latest technology, especially with drones and surveillance. But Ruta acknowledges that at least in its early days, Arctic sentry will primarily consist of military exercises and national deployments of troops and resources that were already in the works.

2:08Some say this operation was rather hastily gathered together, primarily as part of the ongoing effort by the NATO chief, begun in negotiations in Davos, Switzerland, to calm the tensions created by Trump's repeated desire to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish island of Greenland by force if necessary. That's how Peter Viggo Jakobsen from the Royal Danish Defense College sees it. The timing and the reason, but the reason they're doing it is, of course, in order to demonstrate that Trump got something out of his meeting with the NATO Secretary-General. But I think it speaks volumes that nothing concrete is actually being said.

2:45They're painting it all with a very broad brush. Jakobsen agrees, however, that it's not a bad idea to improve NATO's visibility and situational awareness in the high north. That's something experts like Andra Dietrich from the European Union Institute for Security Studies have long been advocating, especially when it comes to Russia. Perhaps in not so distant future, this depends on a range of variables, but I would say that the intent is there. There is a real possibility of a military action launched by Russia. This can be some sort of a premeditated naval assets clash. This can be taking or attempt at taking NATO territory, Bear Island, something in Svalbard.

3:27So I think that threat is absolutely real. But even without getting to that dramatic level, there are plenty of reasons for concern in the region. While Denmark has adamantly rejected the notion a U.S. takeover of Greenland would improve security in any way, the Danish government had long called for more attention to the potential for meddling by Russia and China. That's a fair call, says Veronija Kodrian, chief of strategy at Euroatlas, an engineering company specializing in autonomous underwater vehicles used for surveillance. The risk in the Arctic is a little bit less of a conventional invasion, if you could call it that way.

4:06It's more a kind of a deniable disruption, because activity below the threshold of war is often below the surface. That's where you have the biggest area for deniability, the biggest area of blind spots, and the biggest vulnerability as well. So while many of the real threats in the high north are not visible to the naked eye, NATO's hoping Trump sees the quick establishment of Arctic sentry as the answer to them and never again insists on owning Greenland. For NPR News, I'm Terri Schultz in Brussels.

4:42Now to Japan, where for the first time in more than half a century, the country finds itself in a state of absolute panda-lessness. Japan's last pair of giant pandas was returned to China last month, breaking hearts and making the portmanteau Japanda-less inevitable. NPR's Anthony Kuhn was at the zoo in Tokyo to see them off and filed this dispatch on the state of panda diplomacy. An announcement tells visitors to Tokyo's Ueno Zoo that some areas are closed off and asks them not to block the roads as they bid farewell to the bears. A packed, hushed and mostly female crowd waits patiently for a truck to whisk the pandas to the airport to catch their Sichuan Airlines flight home.

5:35A gentle wave of sighs, sniffs, goodbyes, and wishes to stay healthy ripples through the crowd as the animals leave the zoo. Noriko Kobayashi is here with her panda pals. She says she comes to the zoo about three times a week.

5:53The pandas strike all sorts of poses, and watching them was just amazing. It was really a source of emotional support, something that soothed my soul. Oh, so it's a kind of panda therapy, helps you relax? Yes, that's right. China dispatched its first pair of panda envoys to Japan in 1972 to seal the deal reached a month earlier when the two countries established diplomatic relations. Panda twins, Xiaoxiao and Leile, were born in Tokyo and returned to their native habitat in China by agreement after four years and seven months. They left as Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a diplomatic dispute over Prime Minister Sanae Takeuchi's remarks last November.

6:37She told Parliament that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could trigger a Japanese military response. Since then, China has dialed up diplomatic and economic pressure, sending the message that the Taiwan issue is a red line Tokyo must not cross. Reporters ask Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiaquan when China might loan Japan some more pandas. For specific questions, please contact the relevant Chinese authorities. We know there are many panda fans in Japan, and we welcome Japanese people to come to China to see the pandas. Panda superfan Takahiro Takuuchi has done that. He says he's been to Sichuan province to see the pandas on their home turf, and he's been coming to Weino Zoo every morning for the past 15 years to snap millions of pictures of pandas in every adorable pose.

7:30They're like family to me, and I love them dearly. Even after they return to China, I want to continue watching them grow. Kobayashi and Takauji have been around long enough to see cycles of ups and downs in Japan-China relations, and they're both confident that the pandas will be back eventually. For now, they both plan to keep coming to Weino Zoo to marvel at other cute animals. For Takauji, that means red pandas. For Kobayashi, it's pygmy hippos. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Tokyo.

8:08That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.