Soldiers from France, Germany and other European countries have begun arriving in Greenland to strengthen security on the Arctic island, after talks involving Denmark, Greenland and the United States highlighted “fundamental differences” between President Donald Trump’s administration and its European allies.
France has already sent 15 soldiers and Germany 13. Norway and Sweden are also participating.
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The mission is described as a territorial recognition exercise by the military to plant the European Union flag on Greenland as a symbolic act.
“The first French troops have already left,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday. “Others will follow,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday, after French authorities said soldiers from the country’s mountain infantry had already arrived in Greenland’s capital Nuuk.
France said the two-day mission was a way to demonstrate that EU forces could be deployed quickly if needed.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday that it would send a 13-person reconnaissance team to Greenland.
“Sense of urgency”
Al Jazeera’s Natasha Butler reported from Paris that there is a “sense of crisis” among European countries. “Especially after America’s actions in Venezuela, there’s been a sense that when Donald Trump says something, he actually means it. And that’s why we’ve seen a lot of European countries send troops,” she said.
On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met with White House representatives in Washington, D.C., and announced plans to strengthen their military presence in Greenland as they discussed President Trump’s intentions to seize the semi-autonomous Danish territory to develop its mineral resources amid growing interest from Russia and China.
But in a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance, the two foreign ministers revealed little progress had been made in dissuading the United States from seeking to occupy Greenland.
“We were unable to change the US position,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters. “It’s clear that the president has a desire to conquer Greenland.”
Greenland’s counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, called for cooperation with the United States, but said that did not mean the country wanted to be “owned by the United States.”
They announced their intention to establish a working group to continue to address concerns regarding control of Greenland and Arctic security.
“We really need (Greenland),” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after Wednesday’s meeting. “If we don’t join, Russia will join, China will join. Denmark can’t do anything, but we can do anything.”
In his remarks, President Trump said he had not yet been briefed on the content of the White House meeting.
Reporting from Greenland’s capital Nuuk, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challans said Denmark has two objectives. “One of them is convincing Donald Trump that Denmark can and will take seriously Arctic defense. Donald Trump has been very vocal in his criticism of Denmark’s Arctic defense capabilities, saying that Denmark’s military strength here is the equivalent of a dog sled,” he said.
“But there’s also an element of deterrence in all of this…” he continued. “If that were to happen, no one thinks any of the troops here would be able to stop a U.S. invasion, but that would complicate matters even more, because they are now NATO allies and are coming here with military personnel.”
“And that’s a strange idea, isn’t it, in this day and age when a group of NATO countries are considering deterrence against the United States itself?”
Russia’s reaction
On Thursday, Moscow criticized “the specific activities of Russia and China around Greenland as the reason for the current escalation.”
“First they came up with the idea that there were invaders, and then they thought that they were ready to protect someone from these invaders,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of Western countries’ actions in Greenland.
The current situation “illustrates particularly sharply the contradictions of the so-called ‘rules-based world order’ as constructed by Western countries,” she said.
“We stand in solidarity with China’s position that the reference to specific activities of Russia and China around Greenland as the reason for the current escalation is unacceptable,” Zakharova said.
In Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova reported that Russia’s ambassador to Belgium, Denis Gonchar, accused NATO of “militarizing the Arctic” and said the arrival of alliance officials was a matter of serious concern. “In his opinion, Russia’s position is that the Arctic should remain the territory of a peaceful and equal community,” she said.
Fear in the Inuit community
The prospect of the United States descending on Greenland for mineral extraction has terrified Inuit communities around the town of Ilulissat, which lies beside an icy fjord on the island’s west.
Before Wednesday’s meeting, Karl Sundgreen, director of the Ilulissat Icefjord Visitor Center and an Inuit Greenlander, told Al Jazeera: “I hope Mr. Rubio shows some humanity in that meeting.”
His concern is with the Inuit way of life.
“We’re totally different. We’re Inuit and we’ve been here for thousands of years,” he said. “This is the future of my daughter and son, not the future of people who are thinking about resources.”
