Germany leads military buildup in Greenland in response to Trump

Sanne Wass, Sara Sjolin, Christian Wienberg and Kate Sullivan, Bloomberg News on Jan 14, 2026

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Germany will take the lead of European nations sending military personnel to Greenland after Denmark said its meeting with top U.S. officials intent on controlling the world’s biggest island revealed that a “fundamental disagreement” remains.

The decision to dispatch reinforcements to the Arctic territory as early as this week highlights the urgency with which European nations seek to respond to U.S. threats over Greenland. A meeting of foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington failed to dispel the specter of a U.S. takeover.

On Thursday, Germany’s “exploration mission” of 13 soldiers will arrive in Nuuk as European nations begin to work out how to ensure security in the region. Their task will be to “explore the framework conditions for possible military contributions to support Denmark in ensuring security in the region, for example, for maritime surveillance capabilities,” according to a statement from the German defense ministry.

France will participate in the joint drills in Greenland this week, according to the defense ministry’s press office, which provided no details.

In addition, Sweden is sending “several officers,” Norway two persons and the UK one officer. The reconnaissance group is visiting the island ahead of the planned “Arctic Endurance” training exercise, UK Defense Minister John Healey told reporters in Sweden. Denmark on Wednesday said the drill with North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies would become a permanent fixture.

The European delegations being sent to Greenland — after Denmark’s request — are a signal that the Danes are looking to show Trump they’re taking security matters seriously, in a bid to pacify the U.S. takeover threat.

And while the moves by the three biggest and mightiest European economies don’t reflect big numbers that can be characterized as deployments, the intention — as they calibrate how to stand up to Trump without provoking him — is to demonstrate they can show up for an ally being pushed around.

“More needs to be done in the Arctic,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters after the talks on Wednesday. “That now appears to be happening.”

“We are still, in reality, waiting for a stronger commitment from the United States, which is the paradox,” Rasmussen said.

For Denmark and Greenland, the meeting with Vance and Rubio was an effort to convince the U.S. administration that there’s no need to take over the Arctic island — a semi-autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark — as President Donald Trump has threatened to do. The meeting was cast in Danish media as one of the most decisive moments for the Kingdom since World War II.

According to Denmark, officials agreed to establish a working group that’s set to gather within weeks to plot the way forward, but the U.S. refrained from backing down on its demands.

Asked on Greenland in an availability with reporters at the White House, Trump said he would be briefed about the meeting after that event but repeated that “we need it for national security, and that includes for Europe” and that “if we don’t go in, Russia’s going to go in and China’s going to go in.”

“I can’t rely on Denmark being able to fend themselves off,” Trump said.

The Danes argue that a comprehensive defense agreement dating back to 1951 already allows the U.S. to use the territory as it needs to for defenses — rendering any takeover futile. It was on that basis that Denmark sought to convince the U.S., to no avail.

Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Germany planned to propose setting up a joint NATO mission to monitor and protect security interests in the Arctic region.

“Our allies in Europe are ready,” Rasmussen said. “A number of our closest NATO partners, together with Denmark, are taking immediate responsibility for establishing a stronger footprint in Greenland.”

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(With assistance from Carolynn Look, Ott Ummelas, Charlie Duxbury, Samy Adghirni, Demetrios Pogkas, Ellen Milligan and Kamil Kowalcze.)

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