EU should send troops to Trump-target Greenland, says military chief

Austrian general says the move would send ‘a strong signal’ and act as a deterrent to Russia and China

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General Robert Brieger
General Robert Brieger raised the issue of tensions with Russia and China in the region Credit: Helmut Fohringer/AFP

The European Union’s top general has said the bloc should deploy troops to Greenland after Donald Trump suggested he could seize the territory.

General Robert Brieger, the Austrian head of the bloc’s military committee, claimed the move would send a “strong signal”, as well as act as a deterrent to Russian and Chinese activities.

He made the comments after Mr Trump suggested using military force to take over Greenland, an autonomous region of Denmark.

Copenhagen announced on Monday it would spend 14.6 billion kroner (about £1.6 billion) to bolster security in the strategic Arctic region near the United States and Russia.

“We must face the fact that there are serious challenges regarding security and defence in the Arctic and North Atlantic,” said Troels Lund Poulsen, the country’s defence minister. 

Greenland holds military significance for Washington, with 200 American troops stationed at the Pituffik Space Base, which is part of a missile early warning system, as well as a space and satellite surveillance command hub.

Greenland
Disko Bay in Ilulissat, Greenland. Mr Trump has suggested using military force to take over the autonomous Danish region Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty

Gen Brieger told Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper: “In my view, it would make perfect sense not only to station US forces in Greenland, as has been the case to date, but also to consider stationing EU soldiers there in the future.

“That would send a strong signal and could contribute to stability in the region.”

The general cited melting ice caps and Europe’s desires to control critical minerals, used in the production of green technologies, as two reasons why a greater EU presence there would be useful.

He added: “With increasing ice-melt as a result of climate change, this also creates a certain potential for tension with Russia and possibly China.”

The melting ice caps are creating some of the world’s shorting shipping routes between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

While Greenland is not a member of the EU, its security is guaranteed by Denmark, which is one of the bloc’s 27 member states.

Copenhagen has promised Mr Trump it will do more to bolster security around the territory in response to the US president’s musings about acquiring it.

But Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One this weekend: “I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen because it’s for the protection of the free world. It’s not for us, it’s for the free world. Right now, you have Russian ships, you have Chinese ships, you have ships from various countries. It’s not a good situation.”

Donald Trump
Mr Trump has claimed that a US takeover of the island would be good ‘for the protection of the free world’ Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty

He added: “I think Greenland will be worked out with us. I think we’re going to have it. I think the people want to be with us.”

Deploying an EU mission to Greenland is seen as one option for addressing Mr Trump’s security concerns. The president has repeatedly bemoaned Europe’s reliance on Washington as the continent’s main security guarantor.

Such a deployment would require political sign-off from the bloc’s national capitals because its military committee has no army of its own to conduct missions.

Danish officials have been urging their EU colleagues to keep their interventions on Greenland low-key to avoid further inflaming tensions between Copenhagen and Mr Trump’s administration.

Some European nations have recommended adopting a more combative approach to handling the US president’s interventions on Greenland, Denmark has sought to diplomatically convey the territory is not for sale, while welcoming Washington’s interest in the Arctic.

“Denmark has been urging others to keep cool on the Greenland situation so as not to inflame tensions,” a diplomatic source said. “But, if we start seeing American warships sailing towards Greenland, then we might just need to start having different conversations.”