DENMARK DEPLOYS FORCES TO GREENLAND
Denmark has, for the first time in decades, deployed forces to Greenland, amid growing tensions with the United States, according to Reuters.
It comes after U.S. President Donald Trump’s persistent rhetoric of acquiring the territory as part of a broader Arctic defense strategy and expansion.
Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. While it controls its domestic affairs, Denmark is in charge of its defence, foreign policy, defense, and currency.
Denmark has repeatedly maintained that the island is not for sale and would not discuss or submit its territorial sovereignty to the United States.
Greenland is said to hold vast amounts of mineral deposits. Strategically, while not a member of the European Union, it is an overseas territory of Denmark.
The deployment of forces to the island is both strategic defence and political, as Denmark seeks to assert its control over Greenland.
Reuters reports that the conscripts are “part of the first cohort under Denmark’s new extended conscription programme, aimed at producing soldiers able to operate in one of the kingdom’s most strategically important and challenging regions.”
