Sweden Sends Military Officers to Greenland Amid Trump’s Escalating Threats

A number of Swedish military officers traveled to Greenland on Wednesday at the request of NATO ally Denmark, according to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Their arrival in Greenland coincides with high-level talks at the White House between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Vice President JD Vance on one side, and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt on the other.

Writing on X, Kristersson said that Swedish personnel present in the mineral-rich Arctic territory – which is a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark – are part of a group formed by several allied countries.

“Together they will prepare upcoming steps within the framework of the Danish exercise Operation Arctic Endurance. It is at the request of Denmark that Sweden is sending personnel from the Armed Forces,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to annex Greenland on several occasions since the beginning of January – claiming that the US is “going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not” in order to prevent Russia or China from gaining a foothold in the Arctic.

It is certainly not the first time that Trump has suggested military action on this issue. But he appears to have been emboldened by the success of a recent US operation to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolàs Maduro from his palace in Caracas, which he announced to the world on Jan. 3.

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Like the US military operation in Venezuela, any attempt to seize Greenland by force would be a clear breach of international law. This breach, however, would also rock the foundations of the transatlantic alliance to which the US and Denmark both belong.

NATO’s European member states have sought to express their support for Denmark without alienating the US, which remains a crucial European defense partner. By sending more NATO troops to Greenland to deter Russian and Chinese aggression, they hope to remove Trump’s stated justification for his proposed invasion. 

However, Trump has mocked Denmark’s recent efforts to increase security for Greenland (in which it has invested more than $14 billion dollars) as amounting to “two dogsleds,” according to AFP.

Last week, Sweden’s Kristersson criticized Trump’s “threatening rhetoric” on Greenland and promised that Sweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries would “stand together with our Danish friends.”