Trump wants the island/European military personnel arrive in Greenland

2026-01-15 16:28:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

A French military contingent of 15 troops has arrived in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, while several European countries are sending soldiers there as part of a so-called reconnaissance mission.

The deployment, which will also include personnel from Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, comes as US President Donald Trump continues to press ahead with his claim to the Arctic island, which is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the initial contingent would soon be reinforced with "land, air and naval assets."

The EC expects the full lifting of measures against Kosovo in the coming weeks
January 15, 15:43

Senior diplomat Olivier Poivre d'Arvor saw the mission as sending a strong political signal: "This is a first exercise... we will show the US that NATO is present."

The movement of military personnel comes after the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland traveled to Washington for a meeting with US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday.

After the meeting, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that while the talks were constructive, a "fundamental disagreement" remained between the two sides and later criticized Trump's attempt to buy Greenland.

Meanwhile, Trump doubled down on his push to bring Greenland under U.S. control, telling reporters in the Oval Office that "we need Greenland for national security."

Although he did not rule out the use of force, he said late Wednesday that he thought an agreement could be found with Denmark.

"The problem is that there is nothing Denmark can do about it if Russia or China want to invade Greenland, but we can do everything.

"You discovered this last week with Venezuela."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland was not planning to join the European military deployment in Greenland, but warned that any US military intervention there "would be a political disaster."

"A conflict or an attempt at annexation of the territory of a NATO member by another NATO member would be the end of the world as we know it - and which for many years guaranteed our security," he told a press conference.

Meanwhile, Russia's embassy in Belgium expressed "serious concern" about what was happening in the Arctic, accusing NATO of building up a military presence there "under the false pretext of a growing threat from Moscow and Beijing."

However, NATO's European deployment consists of only a few dozen personnel as part of the Danish-led joint exercises called Operation Arctic Resilience.

Although highly symbolic, it was not immediately clear how long they would stay.

Germany was sending an A400M transport plane to Nuuk on Thursday with a contingent of 13 soldiers, although officials said they would only stay in Greenland until Saturday.

Danish defense officials said they had decided with the Greenland government that there would be an increased military presence around Greenland in the coming period to strengthen "NATO's footprint in the Arctic for the benefit of European and transatlantic security."

In his New Year's address to France's armed forces, Macron said Europeans had a special responsibility towards Greenland, "because this territory belongs to the European Union and is also one of our NATO allies." /CNA