Nordic country dispatches ‘substantial contribution’ of troops to the Arctic territory amid standoff with Washington.
Denmark has sent additional troops to Greenland amid United States President Donald Trump’s threats to take control of the self-governing Danish territory.
The chief of the Royal Danish Army, Peter Boysen, and a “substantial contribution” of soldiers landed in Kangerlussuaq in western Greenland on Monday evening, public broadcaster DR and other Danish media reported.
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Public broadcaster TV2 reported that 58 Danish troops landed in the Arctic territory, joining about 60 others dispatched earlier to participate in ongoing multinational military exercises, dubbed Operation Arctic Endurance.
Denmark’s Ministry of Defence and the Danish Armed Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The deployment came hours after Trump declined to rule out using military force to take control of the vast, mineral-rich Arctic territory, which the US president claims is vital to Washington’s security.
In an interview with NBC News on Monday, Trump replied, “no comment”, in response to a question about whether he could seize the island by force.
Trump’s remarks came after he told Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Storer in a text message over the weekend that he no longer felt obliged to “think purely of Peace” after not being awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Denmark has expressed openness to a beefed-up US military presence in Greenland, but has repeatedly said the territory is not for sale and that any move to take the island by force would spell the end of NATO.
Trump’s insistence that Greenland must be brought under US control has brought US-European relations to their lowest ebb in decades and raised fears about the potential disintegration of NATO, the transatlantic security alliance whose 32 members include both the US and Denmark.
Under Article 5 of NATO’s charter, the alliance considers an armed attack against any one member as an attack against all.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday met with Danish Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen and Greenland’s minister of foreign affairs, Vivian Motzfeldt, to discuss proposals for boosting Arctic security, including the establishment of a joint NATO mission in the Danish territory.
Rutte said in a statement that the sides had discussed the importance of the Arctic to “our collective security” and Copenhagen’s growing investments in its defence capabilities.
“We’ll continue to work together as Allies on these important issues,” Rutte said.
Poulsen stressed the need for unity following the talks.
“Thank you to our allies for standing up for Greenland and Denmark,” he said.
EU’s ‘trade bazooka’
At the same time that Trump’s moves are placing security ties under strain, his threat to impose tariffs on Denmark and seven other European countries until a deal is reached to buy Greenland has raised the prospect of a full-blown transatlantic trade war.
The European Union is set to convene an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss its response to the crisis, with retaliatory tariffs and the activation of the bloc’s anti-coercion mechanism among the options under consideration.
Triggering the Anti-Coercion Instrument, also known as the “trade bazooka”, would allow the bloc to impose sweeping restrictions on the investment and business activities of US tech firms within the single market.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday that she had stressed the “need to unequivocally respect the sovereignty” of Denmark and Greenland in a meeting with US diplomats on the sidelines of the Davos summit in Switzerland.
“This is of utmost importance to our transatlantic relationship,” von der Leyen said. “At the same time, the European Union remains ready to continue working closely with the United States, NATO, and other allies, in close cooperation with Denmark, to advance our shared security interests.”
An opinion poll, commissioned by Danish paper Berlingske last year, suggested that 85 percent of Greenland’s residents did not wish to join the US, with just 6 percent in favour.