NATO troops are now in the forefront of Greenland defiance of Trump’s threats (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The US President has been sent a robust warning by European politicians as NATO soldiers touch down in Greenland amid increasing fears unhinged Donald Trump could order an invasion of the island.
Trump has ramped up his threats of taking over the world’s largest island, which is an autonomous region of Denmark, after saying he needs to “own” the territory. A French military contingent has arrived in the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, as several European NATO states send soldiers to the island. Troops from the UK, Germany, Sweden and Norway made up the deployment.
Senior French diplomat Olivier Poivre d’Arvor sent a strong message to the US President as the troops arrived. He said: “This is a first exercise… we’ll show the US that Nato is present.”
A Royal Danish Air Force plane holding NATO troops lands in Nuuk(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
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This development in global tensions comes after Danish ministers flew to Washington to meet JD Vance and Marco Rubio, on Wednesday. This high stakes meeting ended with no resolution as Denmark’s foreign minister claimed Trump was still set on “conquering” Greenland.
Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the crucial meeting ended in a “fundamental disagreement” about the future of the Arctic island but dialogue between the two nations will continue. He also said it remained “clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland. And we made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the kingdom”.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt travelled to Washington for talks(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
This group of NATO soldiers that touched down on the island were part of Danish-led joint exercises dubbed Operation Arctic Endurance. Defence officials in Denmark said they planned to increase the military presence on the island.
Officials added that they were keen to increase NATO’s “footprint in the Arctic for the benefit of both European and transatlantic security”.
Germany said it will also send a contingent of 13 troops to Nuuk today, although officials said these soldiers will only stay on Greenland until Saturday. It is currently not clear how long the French contingent will remain on the island.
A group of German troops travelling to Greenland on Thursday(Image: AP)
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has previously warned that any attempt by Trump to takeover Greenland would destroy NATO and bring an end to the military alliance.
The US president, who has long been a critic of NATO, said why he needed to “own” the island to stop China and Russia from taking over instead. He said: “Countries have to have ownership and you defend ownership, you don’t defend leases. And we’ll have to defend Greenland.” In a worrying threat he added that the US would do it “the easy way” or “the hard way”.