NATO will strive to reduce growing tensions with Russia in the Arctic, the alliance's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the American publication Foreign Policy.

"We see increased tensions [with Russia] in the North, but we have to continue to strive for lowering the tensions and build cooperation we have developed with Russia over decades. Even during the Cold War, we saw cooperation between NATO allies and the Soviet Union up in the north. So we have to be present [in the Arctic], but in a proportionate, defensive way," Stoltenberg said in response to a journalist's remark that some allies have expressed growing concern about Russian military buildup in the Arctic.