When Donald Trump sets his sights on something, it’s hard to prevent him getting what he wants. That hasn’t, however, stopped Greenland and Denmark from trying.
The Danish army has announced that, from today, it is boosting its presence on Greenland. It will be backed up by a cohort of European troops, arriving over the coming days as part of an effort to prove to the US that Copenhagen can secure the island’s defenses.
Earlier today, France confirmed that 15 troops had arrived on the island. In the coming hours they will be joined by 13 soldiers from Germany, two from Norway, one from Britain, one from the Netherlands and an undisclosed number from Sweden and Estonia. Further waves of troops are expected. As part of “Operation Arctic Endurance,” these soldiers will be conducting a so-called “reconnaissance mission” to scope out ways to bolster Greenland’s security “in light of Russian and Chinese threats in the Arctic,” But will this really deter Donald Trump from his ambition to take Greenland for himself?
An act of aggression by one NATO member against another would kill the alliance
This show of European solidarity follows yesterday’s disheartening talks between Denmark, Greenland and the US in Washington. Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt made the dash across the Atlantic in the hopes of talking the administration out of launching a hostile takeover of the island.
Marco Rubio was originally due to meet them alone. But then J.D. Vance – a notoriously harsh critic of the European establishment – expressed a desire to attend the meeting, and insisted on hosting it in the White House. News of Vance’s involvement reportedly killed any optimism the Danish and Greenlandic delegations had in securing a climbdown.
Speaking to the press after the summit, Rasmussen declared that it had ended in “fundamental disagreement,” “We didn’t manage to change the American position. It’s clear that the President has this wish of conquering Greenland,” he added.
This was reaffirmed by Trump himself shortly afterwards. On Truth Social, he echoed the line he has consistently been pushing on Greenland over the past year and more:
There’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland, but there’s everything we can do. You found that out last week with Venezuela.
Just last week, the President refused to rule out using military force to capture Greenland. Reports since then have suggested that Rubio has been instructed to draw up proposals for purchasing the island from Denmark – with as much as $700 billion (over half the US’s annual defense budget) on the table. Still, there is an anxiety among Denmark and its allies that Trump could resort to annexing Greenland by force. An act of aggression by one NATO member against another would, in no uncertain terms, kill the alliance.
Earlier today, the Russian embassy in Belgium – where NATO is quartered – said the build-up of NATO troops on Greenland was a “serious concern,” Despite this, there are questions over whether Trump’s ambitions in Greenland are genuinely rooted in deterring the Russian and Chinese threat. Thanks to a bilateral treaty struck in 1951, America is already essentially allowed to station as many troops as it wants in Greenland. Europeans are, therefore, reasonably asking why the President still feels the need to take the territory under direct American control. Some have suggested that Trump’s interests lie more in the territory’s mineral resources, or developing the American sphere of influence, than in bolstering America against Russia and China.
Multiple experts and diplomats with access to NATO intelligence briefings have disputed Trump’s claims that “there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place” in Greenland’s waters. There is a risk, then, that Trump’s supposed justifications for taking the territory by force could be spreading already-stretched European defense resources even thinner at a critical time for the continent’s security.
The single positive outcome of yesterday’s summit in Washington is that the Danish, Greenlandic and American delegations agreed to set up a working group to talk through Trump’s security concerns in more detail. If anything, the Danes will be hoping that this will at least buy them time as they bolster Greenland’s defenses on their own terms.
Trump stated last week that he wants to see the issue over Greenland resolved “within weeks or months.” It’s clear this won’t be the end of the crisis for Europe.
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