European nations are piling troops into Greenland to prove it can be defended against the interest of Russia and China, with a last-minute exercise this week attracting one officer from the United Kingdom and two from Norway.
The British government shares U.S. President Donald Trump’s concerns about the threat to Greenland from Russia and China so is backing NATO’s move to enhance security of the world’s largest island by deploying a single military officer this week.
Speaking on Wednesday evening, the UK government’s minister of defence John Healey said the Danes have launched a reconnaissance group to prepare for future deployments. He stated: “At the request of the Danish government, there is one UK military officer that is part of this reconnaissance group. It’s a reconnaissance group for a planned [Joint Expeditionary Force] JEF-led Arctic Endurance exercise.”
Moving to reassure Washington, the minister continued: “We share President Trump’s concerns about security in the high north and you see this as part of NATO and JEF nations stepping up to reinforce security in the high north, stepping up with stronger exercising to deter the Russian aggression and any Chinese activity.”
The Times of London called the mission to Greenland this week a “hastily convened military deployment” and a prelude to later, larger exercises which could even involve the deployment of a Danish warship or fighter jets.
Besides Britain’s lone officer, this week’s mission involves at least one soldier each from Denmark, Germany, France, Norway, and Sweden. Norway revealed it has sent two soldiers, making Germany’s deployment of 13 people seem positively warlike in comparison. France hasn’t specified how many troops it is to send, but implied there would be more than one, given they were referred to in the plural as “elements” deployed.
The mission is due to last until Saturday. Die Welt states the first soldiers from France and Denmark arrived on Wednesday night, arriving hours after talks in Washington.
Senior representatives from Greenland and its owner Denmark met with U.S. leaders on Wednesday including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance. Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen garnered headlines for being photographed smoking both cigarettes and a traditional pipe in-between meetings — he was among the first European leaders to be asked to smoke outside by the EU back in 2011 and endured a minor scandal in his native Denmark over smoking in government offices — and called talks “frank”.
The veteran politician acknowledged “we didn’t manage to change the American position” and stated it is clear that “the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland”, stating Denmark hopes to have talks with the U.S. in the coming weeks to “explore whether there is the possibility to accommodate the concerns of the president while we respect the red lines of the kingdom of Denmark”.
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