Denmark deploys military conscripts to Greenland amid US annexation threats

Denmark has deployed a batch of fresh military conscripts to Greenland for the first time in modern history, as Copenhagen seeks to assert its control over the Arctic territory in response to threats of annexation from US President Donald Trump.

Around 100 conscripts from the Schleswig Infantry Regiment arrived in Nuuk in early August, Denmark’s military said in a press release on Tuesday. The group will divide their time between training and “operational tasks,” the military explained, with some troops stationed in Nuuk and others sent 350km north to Kangerlussuaq, an airbase used by US forces throughout the Second World War and Cold War.

The conscripts deployed to Greenland are the first batch of recruits to serve 11-month stints in the Danish military. In 2024, Denmark extended conscription from four months to 11, broadened the draft to include women, and ordered annual conscription numbers to increase from 5,000 to 7,000.

The military’s press release framed the deployment as an opportunity for recruits to “practice and train military skills in unfamiliar terrain.” The statement made no mention of Denmark’s ongoing dispute with the US over Greenland, but it did note that the conscripts will take part in Operation Arctic Endurance – a military exercise launched in direct response to Trump’s threats to annex the territory.

Trump started threatening to annex Greenland last year, claiming that the US needs the landmass “for the purpose of national security” – namely to host elements of his promised ‘Golden Dome’ ballistic missile defense network. Trump has also said that he wants “Greenland for its rare-earth minerals.”

Denmark launched the exercise in January, after Trump and other top US officials refused to rule out the use of military force to annex Greenland. Two weeks before the operation was announced, Trump joked that Denmark’s entire military presence on Greenland amounted to “two dog sleds.”

Eleven other NATO states have sent troops to take part in the exercise, including France, Germany, and the UK. Operation Arctic Endurance is a small-scale exercise, with fewer than 300 Danish and allied troops in Greenland at any one time before the arrival of the conscripts.

Copenhagen viewed an armed conflict with the US as highly unlikely, government and military sources told Denmark’s DR broadcaster in March, but placed troops in Greenland as an insurance policy. By stationing troops on Greenland “with as many different flags on their shoulders as possible,” DR explained, the Danish government ensured that “the Americans would be forced to take a major hostile action if Donald Trump actually wanted to occupy Greenland militarily.”

“The cost to the US would be raised. The US would have to carry out a hostile act to get Greenland,” a defense source told the broadcaster.