NUUK/LONDON – The sight of a German Luftwaffe transport plane touching down on the frozen runway in Nuuk this Thursday marks a pivotal shift in Arctic geopolitics. Under the banner of “Operation Arctic Endurance,” Europe has physically stepped into the widening rift between Denmark and the United States.
What is officially billed as a logistical support exercise involving troops from France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia is widely interpreted as a “tripwire” strategy. By placing multinational European forces on the ground, Denmark and its allies are effectively raising the stakes for any potential unilateral action by the Trump administration, which has increasingly framed the acquisition of Greenland as a non-negotiable national security imperative.
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose forces are participating in the drill, stated that Europe bears a “special responsibility” for the territory. The operation follows a tense encounter at the White House on Wednesday, where Danish and Greenlandic ministers rejected US pressure to cede control of the island. President Trump subsequently took to social media, declaring that “NATO should be leading the way for us to get it,” arguing that American control is vital to prevent adversaries like China from gaining a foothold.
For the residents of Nuuk, the arrival of allied troops offers a visual reassurance that they do not stand alone. However, it also confirms that their island has become the center of the most significant internal NATO crisis in decades.
