Putting EU troops in Greenland makes sense, bloc’s top military official says

The European Union’s top military official said it would “make perfect sense” to station troops from EU countries in Greenland.

“In my view, it would make perfect sense not only to station U.S. forces in Greenland, as is currently the case, but also to consider stationing EU soldiers there,” Robert Brieger, chairman of the European Union Military Committee, the bloc’s highest military body, told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which is owned by POLITICO’s parent company Axel Springer.

“That would send a strong signal and could contribute to stability in the region,” Brieger said in the interview published Saturday. “Ultimately, however, this is a political decision in which many interests must be taken into account,” he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. should take control of Greenland, calling an American acquisition of the vast Arctic island an “absolute necessity” and refusing to rule out using military force, sending shockwaves across Europe.

On Saturday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he believes Washington will gain control of Greenland. “I think we’re going to have it,” he said, adding that the island’s 57,000 residents “want to be with us.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte B. Egede have insisted Greenland is not for sale. Egede said Greenlanders “don’t want to be Americans.”