European troops arrive in Greenland as talks with US hit wall over future

France sends 15 soldiers, Germany 13. Norway, Sweden besides participating to bolster information connected Arctic island.

Soldiers from France, Germany and different European countries person begun arriving successful Greenland to assistance boost the Arctic island’s information aft talks involving Denmark, Greenland and the United States highlighted “fundamental disagreement” betwixt President Donald Trump’s medication and its European allies.

France has already sent 15 soldiers and Germany 13. Norway and Sweden are besides participating.

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The ngo has been described arsenic a recognition-of-the-territory workout with troops to works the European Union’s emblem connected Greenland arsenic a symbolic act.

“The archetypal French subject elements are already en route” and “others volition follow”, French President Emmanuel Macron said connected Wednesday arsenic French authorities said soldiers from the country’s upland infantry portion were already successful Nuuk, Greenland’s capital.

France said the two-day ngo is simply a mode to amusement that EU troops tin beryllium rapidly deployed if needed.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Ministry of Defence said it was deploying a reconnaissance squad of 13 unit to Greenland connected Thursday.

Denmark announced its plans to summation its ain subject beingness successful Greenland connected Wednesday arsenic the Danish and Greenlandic overseas ministers met with White House representatives successful Washington, DC, to sermon Trump’s intentions to instrumentality implicit the semiautonomous Danish territory to pat its mineral resources amid rising Russian and Chinese interest.

(Al Jazeera)

But the 2 overseas ministers emerged from the meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance having made small advancement successful dissuading Washington from seeking to instrumentality implicit Greenland.

“We didn’t negociate to alteration the American position,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters. “It’s wide that the president has this privation of conquering implicit Greenland.”

His Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, called for practice with the US but said that does not mean the state wants to beryllium “owned by the United States”.

The brace announced their intent to found a moving radical to proceed to code concerns astir power implicit Greenland and information successful the Arctic.

“We truly request it [Greenland],” Trump told reporters successful the Oval Office aft Wednesday’s meeting. “If we don’t spell in, Russia is going to spell in, and China is going to spell in. And there’s not a happening Denmark tin bash astir it, but we tin bash everything astir it.”

Trump said helium had not yet been briefed astir the contents of the White House gathering erstwhile helium made his remarks.

On Thursday, Moscow criticised “references to definite enactment of Russia and China astir Greenland arsenic a crushed for the existent escalation”.

“First they came up with ‍the thought ⁠that determination were immoderate aggressors, and past that they were acceptable to support idiosyncratic from these aggressors,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of ​the West’s actions ‌on Greenland.

The existent situation, she said, “demonstrates with peculiar acuteness the inconsistency of the alleged ‘rules-based ‌world order’ being built by the ‌West,” she said.

“We basal ⁠in solidarity with China’s presumption connected the unacceptability of references to definite enactment of ‌Russia and China astir Greenland arsenic a crushed for the existent ‍escalation,” Zakharova said.

Fear successful Inuit communities

The imaginable of the US descending connected Greenland to pat its minerals has struck fearfulness into Inuit communities astir the municipality of Ilulissat, perched beside an crystal fjord connected the occidental broadside of the island.

Before Wednesday’s meeting, Inuit Greenlander Karl Sandgreen, caput of the Ilulissat Icefjord visitant centre, told Al Jazeera: “My anticipation is that Rubio is going to person immoderate humanity successful that talk.”

His fears are for the Inuit mode of life.

“We are wholly different. We are Inuit, and we’ve been surviving present for thousands of years.” helium said. “This is my daughter’s and my son’s future, not a aboriginal for radical who are reasoning astir resources.”