The failure of the talks between Donald Trump and the Danish authorities has led several allies to announce the sending of troops to Greenland in an atmosphere of tension due to the US president’s intention to annex the island citing “security” reasons against Russia and China.
This is a reconnaissance mission part of a Danish military exercise in which, for the moment, France, Sweden, Germany and Norway are participating. Spain does not rule out going to the site, as the Minister of Defense herself, Margarita Robles, has said, who also calls for “not precipitating events.”
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has pointed out the “particular responsibility” of European nations in Greenland, in the face of repeated threats from the United States to control the autonomous territory belonging to Denmark, while announcing air, sea and land reinforcement for the French deployment within the framework of ‘Operation Arctic Resistance’ announced by Copenhagen to increase the security of the island.
After the Danish Executive announced the series of surveillance exercises, Macron stressed the “particular responsibility” that Europeans have with respect to Greenland, given the tensions with the United States over its intentions to annex this semi-autonomous territory. “This territory belongs to the European Union and is also the territory of one of our NATO allies. France has a role to play,” he stated in a speech at the Istres air base, where he reviewed the situation of the French Defense.
Thus, the French president has confirmed that France already has “a first team of soldiers” on the ground to contribute to the mission led by Denmark, which “will be reinforced in the coming days with land, air and maritime means.”
The Danish authorities made the announcement of this mission shortly before the meeting at the White House with the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The meeting in Washington ended without an agreement between the United States and Denmark and confirmed the disagreement with the Donald Trump Administration.
Spain does not rule out participating in the mission to “strengthen surveillance”
In our country, Margarita Robles assures that the mission of the exercise is to “reinforce surveillance” in Greenland and that a decision will be made on the possible Spanish presence between this Thursday and this Friday, since there are contacts with the partners. “These days there are meetings and we are going to see how everything progresses and based on that we will make decisions,” he said in Congress.
In any case, he stressed that Spain is aligned “with the other allies.” “We are permanently in agreement with the other allies and we will see throughout the day,” he stressed. But he took the opportunity to ask for “prudence, discretion and not to precipitate events.”
Requested in case a possible US invasion of Greenland would mean the end of NATO, Robles has rejected this extreme. “I don’t believe it, I sincerely believe that (the annexation) is unacceptable and very serious, but I don’t think we are in that situation,” he concluded.
