A small French military contingent has arrived in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, officials say, as several European states deploy small numbers in a so-called reconnaissance mission.
The limited deployment, which also involves Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and the UK, comes as US President Donald Trump continues to press his claim to the Arctic island, which is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the initial contingent would be reinforced soon with “land, air, and sea assets”.
Senior diplomat Olivier Poivre d’Arvor saw the mission as sending a strong political signal: “This is a first exercise… we’ll show the US that Nato is present.”
Poivre d’Arvor said the initial French deployment involved 15 people, hours after Denmark and Greenland’s foreign ministers travelled to Washington for a meeting with US Vice-President JD Vance on Wednesday.
Following the meeting, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said while the talks were constructive, there remained a “fundamental disagreement” between the two sides and later criticised Trump’s bid to buy Greenland.
Trump, meanwhile, doubled down on his bid to bring Greenland under US control, telling reporters in the Oval Office, “we need Greenland for national security”. Although he did not rule out the use of force, he said late on Wednesday that he thought something could be worked out with Denmark.
“The problem is 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.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland was not planning to join the European military deployment to Greenland, but warned that any US military intervention there “would be a political disaster”.
“A conflict or attempted 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.
Russia’s embassy in Belgium meanwhile expressed “serious concern” at what was unfolding 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, the European Nato deployment consists of only a few dozen personnel as part of Danish-led joint exercises called Operation Arctic Endurance. While heavy in symbolism, it was not immediately clear how long they would stay.
Finland is sending two military liaison officers for what it said was a fact-finding mission during what was currently a planning stage of the operation.
“Right now we are not ruling anything out but we are not specifically considering anything,” Janne Kuusela, head of the defence ministry’s policy department, told the BBC.
