U.S. President Donald Trump has made Greenland a focus of his second term, framing the self-governing Danish territory as a national security priority while repeating claims about Chinese and Russian military activity near the island.
In comments reported by the Associated Press, Trump warned that “We need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place.” He added that the U.S. would have to act to prevent Russia and China from “occupy[ing] Greenland” if Washington did not acquire it.
Andreas Østhagen, research director for Arctic and ocean politics at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, said Trump’s statement does not match what is seen in the region. “That statement makes no sense in terms of facts,” Østhagen said. “There are no Russian and Chinese ships all over the place around Greenland. Russia and/or China has no capacity to occupy Greenland or to take control over Greenland.”
Østhagen’s position was echoed by other experts and residents interviewed by AP. Lars Vintner, a heating engineer in Nuuk, said, “The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” and said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships. Hans Nørgaard, also interviewed in Nuuk, told AP that Trump’s claims are “fantasy.”
The AP report said that while Russian submarines may be present in the broader Arctic region near Greenland, the specifics Trump offered are not supported. Lin Mortensgaard, an expert on international politics of the Arctic at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said there are probably Russian submarines near Greenland, but “there are no surface vessels.” She also said China has research vessels in the Central Arctic Ocean, and that China and Russia’s joint exercises in the Arctic have taken place closer to Alaska.
When AP asked Greenland’s business minister, Naaja Nathanielsen, about Trump’s claim that multiple Chinese and Russian ships and submarines are around the island, she said, “Not that we are aware of.” She added, “we don’t detect an actual threat,” and said, “I don’t see any appetite from Russia or China to destabilize this.”
Trump also faced pushback from the same AP reporting on what he described as Denmark’s defenses in Greenland. He said, “You know what their defense is? Two dog sleds.”
Experts said Denmark does use dog sled patrols, but not as a substitute for broader defense and surveillance. The AP report described the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol as an elite Danish naval unit stationed in Greenland that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness. Steven Lamy, an international relations professor and Arctic security expert at the University of Southern California, said the conditions make land transport impractical: “Remember, transportation of the area is either by sea or by air. There are no highways.” “You can’t basically get in a car or a Bradley vehicle or tank or anything and go up there. So they have dog sleds.”
Beyond the sled patrol unit, the AP report said Denmark has surface patrol ships and surveillance aircraft, and that the kingdom has been moving to strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the North Atlantic. It cited a roughly 14.6 billion-kroner ($2.3 billion) agreement last year involving the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands to “improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region,” including three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones, and satellite capacity.
The AP report also said Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Nuuk and tasked with “surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,” adding that the command has smaller satellite stations across the island. It further noted that NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic through the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) gap and that the U.S. Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951.
In a third exchange covered by AP, Trump challenged Denmark’s basis for owning Greenland by citing historical landings. He said, “The fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land. I’m sure we had lots of boats go there also.”
AP said the historical record does not support a simple “boats arrive therefore ownership” argument. It reported that the first humans arrived in northern Greenland circa 2,500 B.C., and that the Norse explorer Erik the Red arrived circa A.D. 985, according to medieval Icelandic sagas. It also said Lutheran missionary Hans Egede arrived in 1721 and began efforts to convert Indigenous people to Christianity, and that Greenland formally became a Danish colony in 1814. The report said the U.S. government recognized Denmark’s right to the whole of Greenland more than a century later.
Østhagen responded directly to Trump’s logic. “It’s the same logic about the U.S. and sovereignty, right? You have a couple of boats arriving from Europe and now you own the United States of America,” he said. “The Indigenous population was there before you guys.”
AP reported that Greenland’s modern status rests on treaties developed in the postwar era. It said in 2009 Greenland became a self-governing country within the Danish kingdom and has a right to independence when requested by local voters, and that Ulrik Pram Gad of the Danish Institute for International Studies said that postwar it remained important for countries to refrain from exerting power over other territories. Gad said, “We shouldn’t just grab and go to war,” and added, “Rather, it should be peoples who have their self-determination.”