Denmark bolsters Greenland’s defenses after Trump takeover speak

Days after Donald Trump again expressed interest in acquiring Greenland, Denmark said it would boost defenses on its Arctic territory.

In what it insisted was a total coincidence, the Scandinavian country announced an investment of $1.5 billion in defenses of its vast possession bordering North America.

The Danes will add two elite navy sled-dog teams, two new patrol boats, and two new long-range drones, according to a report in the New York Post.

The BBC reported that other improvements will include upgrading Greenlandic airports to handle F-35 fighter jets.

“It is ironic that it coincides with the announcement from the United States,” Danish Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

“For many years we have not invested enough in the Arctic, now we are planning a stronger presence,” he said.

The moves were announced days after Mr. Trump — and not for the first time — expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland from Denmark, which has controlled the barren Arctic island since 1814 by itself and for centuries before that when Denmark was part of a confederation with Norway.

But on Sunday, Mr. Trump, in the context of announcing that PayPal co-founder Ken Howery will be the next U.S. ambassador to Denmark, wrote that “for purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

He had spoken similarly in 2019, prompting the Danish prime minister at the time to say that “Greenland is not for sale” and leading him to cancel a planned visit to Denmark in response.

Mr. Poulsen took a different tack Tuesday in announcing the security boosts.

He said his country is looking to “work with the U.S.” on security in Greenland and the Arctic region.

Mr. Trump has made no threats of force against Denmark, which is a member of NATO and thus allied with the U.S.

Never have two NATO countries actually gone to war, in the sense of armed forces firing on one another, though Greece and Turkey came closest in the latter’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus.

The Cypriot National Guard was officered by Greek citizens and some were killed. Greece never formally intervened though, despite a lot of posturing and maneuvering against each other by its armed forces and those of Turkey.