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\nGreenland Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Motzfeldt (L) and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark Lars Lokke Rasmussen pictured in Capitol Hill this week<\/p>\n
The meeting had not gone well.<\/p>\n
Denmark’s foreign minister emerged from the White House and jogged to his car for cigarettes.<\/p>\n
A video of the scene went viral instantly – Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, cigarette dangling from his mouth, offering the pack and lighter to his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt.<\/p>\n
Their meeting with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had clearly taken its toll.<\/p>\n
In a press conference outside the Danish embassy in Washington, Mr Rasmussen, a bruising political heavyweight and former prime minister, made clear why he needed that cigarette.<\/p>\n
“We didn’t manage to change the American position,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland.”<\/p>\n
The one positive, Mr Rasmussen said, was an agreement to form a working group.<\/p>\n
But even that flickering hope was soon extinguished. Both sides, it turned out, had fundamentally different understandings of what had been decided in that room.<\/p>\n
\nGreenland Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Motzfeldt (L) and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark Lars Lokke Rasmussen pictured in Capitol Hill this week<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the White House announced the working group would focus on how the US could acquire Greenland. The Danes, who thought they had agreed to discuss American security concerns, and not a transfer of sovereignty, were stunned.<\/p>\n
The disagreement would be extraordinary in any other week. But this is a story that has moved faster than anyone anticipated.<\/p>\n
When I was in Greenland this week, most people I spoke to were bowled over by mere words of support from European leaders.<\/p>\n
They were grateful that anyone was standing up for them at all.<\/p>\n
More than one person told me they knew not to expect European troops on the ground. That seemed like wishful thinking, far beyond what their island could reasonably ask for.<\/p>\n
But, by Sunday, European capitals had actually begun floating the idea of a NATO mission to the Arctic – ostensibly to address the security concerns Donald Trump has raised.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Russian and Chinese ships are prowling Greenland\u2019s waters, despite no evidence of any such presence.<\/p>\n
Watch: Trump says US will take Greenland ‘one way or the other’<\/p>\n
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Observers quickly noted the convenient dual purpose: While it would show Mr Trump that Europe was taking Arctic security seriously, it would also ensure the US could not seize Greenland without first confronting European forces.<\/p>\n
But for a continent not exactly renowned for speed, things moved even faster than that.<\/p>\n
By Wednesday, they had seemingly abandoned the NATO idea, which would have required the support of all 32 of the military alliance’s members.<\/p>\n
Instead, Denmark announced an immediate deployment of troops under what it dubbed Operation Arctic Endurance.<\/p>\n
France and Germany each sent around a dozen troops. Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands contributed a handful of officers. Britain sent exactly one, in what became an instant meme.<\/p>\n
While the numbers seemed too small to matter, six allies putting boots on Greenlandic soil is a powerful statement of support – a veritable line in the snow.<\/p>\n
And these are not symbolic or token forces – they are military planners laying the groundwork for a more substantial deployment.<\/p>\n
![\"Danish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023c0f4-614.jpg\"\/)
\nDanish and German soldiers arrive at the Danish Arctic Command building in Nuuk<\/p>\n
On the surface, European diplomats insisted that Operation Arctic Endurance was about addressing Mr Trump’s security concerns.<\/p>\n
Behind closed doors, French officials were reportedly far more candid, noting that the goal was to jolt American opinion, particularly in the Pentagon.<\/p>\n
President Emmanuel Macron barely bothered with the fiction, and heavily implied that the operation was a response to American threats.<\/p>\n
In his new year’s address to France’s armed forces, Mr Macron said his country\u2019s “correct role” was standing “at the side of a sovereign state to protect its territory”.<\/p>\n
He noted that Europe was “being shaken in some of its certainties”, including by having “rivals it did not expect to see”.<\/p>\n
But people remain none the wiser as to why Mr Trump seems so determined to shake those certainties.<\/p>\n
The US President has insisted that anything less than US ownership is “unacceptable”. The White House has repeatedly refused to rule out military action.<\/p>\n
And he has now threatened tariffs on countries that don\u2019t support his plans to annex the island.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers visited Copenhagen yesterday hoping to “lower the temperature”. They too seemed bewildered.<\/p>\n
Senator Chris Coons told reporters there was “a lot of rhetoric, but not a lot of reality” to Mr Trump\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n
If it is genuinely about national security, a 1951 agreement with Denmark already gives the US practically unfettered military access. If it\u2019s about Greenland’s minerals or oil reserves, they are largely inaccessible beneath ice – and Denmark is open to deals anyway.<\/p>\n
The only explanation that makes sense is the one Mr Trump himself has offered.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023bae5-614.jpg\"\/)
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