World News: Europe Sends Some Troops To Greenland --- In a NATO first, American allies are using forces to stop possible U.S. action

 

 

“Fifteen French mountain infantry soldiers marched onto a runway late Wednesday and boarded a bus labeled "Greenland Excursions," their first step in a mission to deter a U.S. invasion of the Arctic island.

 

At an air base 200 miles north, a Danish C-130 military plane unloaded Swedish troops, while a 13-person German Army reconnaissance team mobilized for a two-day deployment.

 

A small buildup of European military and diplomatic assets is unfolding in the High North, where America's closest allies are trying to raise the price for Greenland. Their goal is in part to show the U.S. that Greenland won't be "easy prey," as one senior European official put it.

 

It is a first for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: European members are sending troops to a friendly territory in the hopes of deterring their biggest ally from launching military action.

 

The deployments unfolded as Danish diplomats met with top U.S. officials in Washington on Wednesday. They are intended in part to send a message to President Trump that any attempt to grab the Arctic territory would come at a cost to the U.S. and its most valuable alliance, European officials said.

 

The show of European solidarity, although initially only a token gesture of about 30 troops, also aims to give Denmark some cards to play in potential negotiations with Trump.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said Europe must be "uncompromising" on the issue of territorial sovereignty.

 

Hanging over the move is a daunting question for Europe: Is there any possible Greenland deal with Trump that resolves his stated security concerns, shy of ceding it to American control?

 

Trump has said the U.S. must own the semiautonomous Danish territory for America's national security. If the U.S. doesn't control the island, China or Russia will, Trump said Wednesday.

 

The White House hasn't ruled out using force to take the territory.

 

Denmark and Greenland say the island isn't up for grabs and that its people don't want to be part of the U.S. China has shown little recent interest in the island.

 

Russian officials, for their part, have teased Trump that if he doesn't take it, they will.

 

On Wednesday in Washington, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt held an initial meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the dispute. Rasmussen described the conversation as a positive step forward, with the two sides agreeing to set up a working group and continue talks.

 

"We trust that our American counterparts will respect what we have agreed, and should our expectations not be met, this will, of course, not be a successful process, but I think we have to give it a try," Rasmussen said in an interview. "What is the alternative?"

 

Rasmussen said he left the meeting with Vance and Rubio presuming the Trump administration understood the island wouldn't become part of the U.S. Rasmussen said he made that point explicitly, adding that his U.S. counterparts didn't make any direct offers to acquire Greenland. He said the European troops now stationed in Greenland are exercising and not meant as a signal to the U.S.

 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wasn't upbeat. "It was not an easy meeting," she said. Continuing the dialogue, she added, wouldn't change the fact that "there is a fundamental disagreement because the American ambition to take over Greenland is intact."

 

European leaders and many U.S. national-security specialists say Russia and China pose no near-term threat to Greenland, and that the U.S. has broad freedom to establish defenses on the island under a 1951 pact with Denmark.

 

The European deployments to Greenland -- which are scheduled to include troops from Denmark, Britain, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden -- were aimed in part at showing Trump that NATO allies were attentive to his security concerns.

 

The U.K. said it would send an officer, as part of what it called an effort to deter Russia and China.

 

The moves also signaled to the U.S. that it was tangling not just with Denmark but allies from across NATO's 32 members.

 

Macron, who declared "Europeans have a particular responsibility" for Greenland because Denmark is in the European Union, said a team of French soldiers are in Greenland for military exercises, and would be strengthened in the coming days with additional land, air, and sea resources.

 

France said Wednesday that it would open a consulate in Greenland by Feb. 6. Rarely has a European government opened a diplomatic outpost so quickly to serve a territory whose latest census records just 24 French residents.

 

Denmark had already been building out its Arctic forces, in reaction to events in Ukraine.” [1]

 

If 30 troops are enough to protect Greenland from the American Army, one soldier by the border fence is enough to protect Lithuania from Russians and Belarusians. The soldier could also become a tourist sightseeing attraction, if dressed well enough. Give the billions of Euros a year spent on the tiny Lithuanian military back to the people.

 

1. World News: Europe Sends Some Troops To Greenland --- In a NATO first, American allies are using forces to stop possible U.S. action. Bertrand, Benoit; Michaels, Daniel; Hinshaw, Drew.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 16 Jan 2026: A6.