The last time I wrote about Greenland, the Danish foreign minister had summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen after Denmark’s national broadcaster reported that at least three people connected to President Donald Trump were carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland, allegedly trying to sway residents to align more robustly with U.S. interests.
In the wake of this drama, there are indications that the Danes are taking the needs of their semi-autonomous territory a bit more seriously. To begin with, Denmark recently announced plans to invest about $250 million in Greenland’s infrastructure.
The Danish government is expected to unveil a proposal in the coming weeks for increased Arctic defense spending. This follows ongoing joint training exercises in Greenland this month, which bring together Denmark and several of its NATO allies with more than 550 personnel participating.The latest initiatives build on a major defense agreement from earlier this year. On February 22nd, the Danish Government and the parties behind the defense agreement decided to accelerate the build-up of Danish Defense with an additional $7.9 billion allocated over 2025 and 2026. The plan will put Denmark above 3% of GDP in allocated defense spending. The agreement was concluded in the wake of intelligence assessments warning that Russia could regain sufficient military strength within two years to wage war against one or several NATO countries.At the same time, Copenhagen is facing new pressure from Greenland’s own leaders for more substantial economic support. In August, Greenland’s government demanded increased financial backing, linking today’s economic challenges to a controversial birth-control campaign from the 1960s and 70s. Finance minister Múte B. Egede said Denmark carried “historic responsibility” for the island’s weak economy. According to Egede, the forced contraception policy created a demographic imbalance where too few workers must now support a growing elderly population.
The $250 million infrastructure investment is about twice what the Trump administration proposed simply for the development of a rare earths mine. Still, it’s a start.
Demark also seems to be taking Arctic security slightly more seriously as well. The Danes held a large-scale international military exercise on Greenland this week.
However, as they are still upset over President Donald Trump’s intention to acquire the Danish territory, the U.S. was not invited to participate.
The exercise, the largest in Greenland’s modern history, comes amid increased interest in the Arctic region and its vast natural resources from other large powers, such as Russia and China.It included contributions from the militaries of several European NATO allies, according to the Danish military. More than 550 people and soldiers took part, including more than 70 from France, Germany, Norway and Sweden.Military observers from the United States were present, and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was invited, but Denmark’s Arctic commander, Soren Andersen, told reporters that the United States’ military was not invited to participate in the training.”We work together with colleagues on the U.S. Pituffik Space Base, but they were not invited with units for this exercise,” Andersen said. He added that the Danish military had “a very good relationship with the U.S. military.” Pituffik Space Base is the only U.S. base in the country, located in northwestern Greenland. The Danish military later said that Danish F-12 fighter jets visited the base, and that the pilots had coffee with the U.S. base’s deputy commanderand U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was invited, but Denmark’s Arctic commander, Soren Andersen, told reporters that the United States’ military was not invited to participate in the training.
The exercise seems timely, as the Russians appear to be confused about their own airspace.
NATO says it has responded after Russian military jets “violated” Estonian airspace.In a statement, the Estonian government said the incident involved three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets that flew near Vaindloo Island, in the Gulf of Finland, for a total of 12 minutes without permission.A NATO spokesperson said the Russian jets “violated Estonian airspace” and “NATO responded immediately and intercepted the Russian aircraft”.”This is yet another example of reckless Russian behaviour and NATO’s ability to respond.”
We’ll see if this is a case of “better late than never”.
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