{"id":285965,"date":"2026-01-15T15:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/285965\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:29:09","slug":"denmark-expands-military-presence-in-greenland-amid-transatlantic-megaphone-diplomacy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/285965\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark expands military presence in Greenland amid transatlantic megaphone diplomacy \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of the more bizarre turns of events on the international stage Denmark<\/a> is expanding its permanent military presence on its territory of Greenland<\/a> as US president Donald Trump<\/a> has vowed to take control of the Arctic island \u201cthe easy way or the hard way\u201d.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is not so strange amid a second Trump term that has seen him talk last year about taking over Gaza and turning it into the Riviera of the Middle East; US military actions in Iran and Venezuela; and the imposition of trade tariffs on US allies and adversaries alike. <\/p>\n

In our lead story<\/a> Derek Scally \u2013 who has been reporting from Nuuk and Copenhagen in recent days \u2013 writes that Denmark\u2019s move to expand its military presence in Greenland with immediate effect came after \u201cfrank but constructive\u201d White House talks over the future of the Arctic island ended after just 50 minutes.<\/p>\n

After two weeks of transatlantic megaphone diplomacy, Danish foreign minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen told his US<\/a> counterpart Marco Rubio<\/a> and US vice-president JD Vance<\/a> that Copenhagen would view a US attack on Greenland as a threat to Danish territory, covered by Nato<\/a>\u2019s mutual defence pact.<\/p>\n

In a post-meeting press conference, Mr Rasmussen announced a new \u201chigh-level\u201d working group to find a \u201ccommon way forward\u201d that addressed US security concerns while respecting the \u201cred lines of the Kingdom of Denmark\u201d.<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s chief diplomat said repeatedly in a news conference that Greenland faced no immediate threat from China or Russia, contradicting a core argument made by the Trump administration<\/a> to justify a US takeover.<\/p>\n

Greenland is a largely self-governing territory inside the three-state Kingdom of Denmark, though security and defence remain competences of the government in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

Greenland\u2019s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, who also attended the meeting, welcomed the new co-operation, calling the US a security ally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we want to be owned by the United States,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump did not attend the meeting but, after it concluded, posted on social media: \u201cNato: Tell Denmark to get them out of here, NOW! Two dog sleds won\u2019t do it! Only the USA can!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Denmark dismisses such claims, pointing to a \u20ac5.6 billion Arctic defence package last year.<\/p>\n

In advance of Wednesday\u2019s meeting, the Danish defence ministry announced even deeper co-operation in the region with its European Nato allies.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom today, there will be an expanded military presence in and around Greenland,\u201d the statement said, mentioning \u201caircraft, vessels and soldiers\u201d from Denmark as well as France, Germany, Sweden and Norway.<\/p>\n

Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly said the territory is not for sale, that the US is exercising \u201cunacceptable pressure\u201d on a long-standing ally and that a 1951 bilateral agreement already allows the US to massively expand its military presence on the island.<\/p>\n

Inside the paper is this piece<\/a> from the New York Times headlined Greenland envy shows size matters to Trump, setting out how if Trump gets his way the island would be the largest territory added to the United States. <\/p>\n

It would surpass the Louisiana Purchase from the French in 1803 and the Alaska Purchase from the Russians in 1867. <\/p>\n

It quotes Cornell University historian David Silbey as saying \u201cTrump\u2019s a real estate guy,\u201d adding in his email: \u201cand the idea of grabbing that much land seems to me his particular guiding force: THE MOST LAND EVER\u201d.<\/p>\n

Best Reads<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the front page<\/a> Katie Mellett reports that the number of US citizens seeking asylum in Ireland increased more than fourfold last year compared to 2024.<\/p>\n

Jack Horgan-Jones has a story<\/a> on how a single data centre in west Dublin consumes 10 times the electricity of a nearby pharmaceutical plant employing 2,000 people, equivalent to enough power for 200,000 homes.<\/p>\n

Miriam Lord outlines<\/a> how one politician seemed to momentarily forget where he was during a watery Uisce \u00c9ireann debate in a piece headlined: The D\u00e1il\u2019s floodgates have opened and led to some Michael Collins cussin\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Moriarty tribunal has entered its 30th year after racking up more than \u20ac78m in costs, prolonging the work of the payments to politicians inquiry established in 1997 that published its final report in 2011. Arthur Beesley has the story here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Harry McGee reports<\/a> that more than 30 serving and former ministers who were overpaid due to errors in pension deductions have not yet entered a process to repay what they owe.<\/p>\n

On the Opinion pages Newton Emerson writes that there has been a strangely subdued reaction in Northern Ireland to the proposal to turn Newry into a commuter base for Dublin. His piece is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Playbook<\/p>\n

Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary is due to take Parliamentary Questions in the D\u00e1il from 8.47am.<\/p>\n

Darragh O\u2019Brien, the Minister for Transport, is next up at 10.24am. <\/p>\n

Leaders\u2019 Questions is at noon.<\/p>\n

There will be statements in the D\u00e1il on Artificial Intelligence from 1.52pm. <\/p>\n

There is an opportunity for TDs to ask questions on topical issues from 4.17pm.<\/p>\n

Legislation put forward by Sinn F\u00e9in TD Thomas Gould on derelict sites is to be debated at 5.17pm.<\/p>\n

Representatives of the National Transport Authority will be before the D\u00e1il\u2019s Public Accounts Committee from 10.30am.<\/p>\n

The National Traveller Health Action Plan will be discussed at a meeting of the Committee on Key Issues Affecting the Traveller Community at 12.30pm. <\/p>\n

The Seanad does not meet again until January 20th.<\/p>\n

The full Oireachtas schedule can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of the more bizarre turns of events on the international stage Denmark is expanding its permanent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,4767,382,356,13,14,17768,6,48189,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-285965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dail-eireann","11":"tag-denmark","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-greenland","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-inside-politics","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news","27":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115899830293977045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}