"Substantial Troop Reinforcement... Army Chief to Accompany Deployment"
Danish Defense and Greenland Foreign Ministers Meet with NATO Secretary General and EU Foreign Affairs Chief
As U.S. President Donald Trump has openly expressed his intention to annex Greenland, it has been reported that Denmark will deploy additional troops to Greenland.
On the 19th (local time), Danish broadcaster TV2 reported, citing sources from the Ministry of Defense, that Denmark will send additional combat troops to Greenland. While the exact number of troops was not disclosed, the broadcaster described the deployment as "substantial" in scale. The additional forces are scheduled to arrive in Kangerlussuaq, located 300 kilometers north of Greenland's capital, Nuuk, on the same day, and Danish Army Chief of Staff Peter Boysen will accompany them, according to the report.
According to the Danish Arctic Command, about 100 troops were dispatched to Nuuk last week, and a similar number of troops have been deployed to Kangerlussuaq. These forces are tasked with launching the Denmark-led military exercise in Greenland, called "Operation Arctic Endurance," with the participation of other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies.
On the same day, Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark's Minister of Defense, who visited NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, proposed to NATO that a "surveillance operation" be launched in Greenland. After meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Poulsen told Danish media, "We have made this proposal, and the Secretary General paid attention to it. Hopefully, we can now establish a framework for how to make this concrete."
Vivian Motzfeldt, Greenland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, who also participated in the discussions, said, "Greenland is in an extraordinary situation that is drawing the attention of the world," adding, "This situation calls for strengthening cooperation on Arctic defense and security within the NATO framework."
After the meeting, Secretary General Rutte stated on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), "We discussed with Minister Poulsen and Minister Motzfeldt how important the Arctic, including Greenland, is to our collective security," adding, "We will continue to cooperate as allies on these important issues."
Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson, after a separate meeting of Nordic defense ministers at NATO headquarters, emphasized that NATO's mission could be "the way forward" in response to President Trump's call for more action to counter threats from China and Russia toward Greenland.
Ministers Poulsen and Motzfeldt also met with Kaja Kallas, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in Brussels to request EU-level support for Greenland. After the meeting, High Representative Kallas stated on X, "Arctic security is a shared Atlantic interest and an issue that can be discussed with our ally, the United States. However, tariff threats cannot be the way to address this. Europe has a variety of tools to protect its own interests."
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