Nuuk, Greenland
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In the untamed fjords of southwestern Greenland, a fleet of Danish warships patrol the icy waters of what’s change into a extremely contested Arctic hotspot.
For three centuries, Denmark has been the sovereign energy right here, a tiny European monarchy nonetheless reigning over Greenland’s 57,000 individuals, in addition to its huge swathes of harsh and resource-rich terrain.
But Danish colonial authority – now centered primarily on international, protection and financial coverage – is dealing with an unprecedented problem, and the Scandinavian kingdom is at pains to underline and preserve its navy management.
NCS was invited on board the HDMS Niels Juel, a Danish air protection frigate deployed to Greenland for Exercise Arctic Light: a land, sea and air coaching mission that is only one side of Denmark’s intensified navy presence, launched in June this 12 months, round its Arctic holdings.
Publicly, Danish officers echo the longstanding considerations of their NATO allies that Russia has been bolstering its offensive capabilities in the Arctic over the previous 20 years or extra.
Greenland, along with Iceland and the United Kingdom, sits alongside an important axis, the so-called GIUK hole, which controls maritime entry to the North Atlantic.
Moscow may be slowed down combating in Ukraine at the second, but as soon as that brutal battle is lastly over, Danish navy officers inform NCS they totally count on Russia to divert assets and use its warfighting expertise to pose a a lot larger risk in the Arctic area.
China, too, has been stepping up its Arctic claims, collaborating in patrols and workouts with Russian vessels, in addition to funding Arctic infrastructure initiatives and creating a “polar silk road” plan for Arctic delivery. It’s even declared itself a “near-Arctic state,” regardless of the undeniable fact that its most northerly main metropolis, Harbin, is roughly as far north as Venice in Italy.
But in face-to-face conferences, senior Danish navy commanders say that neither Russia nor China presently current any vital navy risk to Greenland.
“I don’t think we have a threat to Greenland right now,” Major General Søren Andersen, the chief of Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command, advised NCS.
“We see Russia is active in the Arctic Ocean, in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia, but not here,” he added.
What’s extra, Danish navy officers insist the world’s largest island – the dimension of six Germanys or two of the greatest US states, Alaska and California, mixed – is comparatively simple to defend. Harsh climate, mountainous terrain and a scarcity of infrastructure make the complete east coast of the territory “virtually unconquerable,” in line with one Danish navy official.
It all begs the query why Denmark – a US ally that contributed troops to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – is now internet hosting its greatest ever navy drills, ramping up Arctic protection spending by greater than $2 billion, establishing an Arctic particular forces group and buying new naval vessels and long-range drones.
The reply is extra more likely to be present in Washington DC than in Moscow or Beijing.
Denmark’s navy spending spree was introduced in January this 12 months, shortly after US President Donald Trump started expressing renewed curiosity in controlling Greenland, insisting final December forward of taking workplace that “the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
Subsequent remarks, during which Trump refused to rule out taking Greenland by power, stirred additional alarm.
But whereas the difficulty seems to have dropped off the agenda of the mercurial US chief, alongside along with his threats to annex Canada and to take over the Panama Canal, many Danes nonetheless see it as their most urgent – and worrying – diplomatic problem.
In a possible act of protest, Denmark not too long ago confirmed to NCS its greatest ever arms buy, agreeing to spend greater than $9 billion on air protection programs from European producers as a substitute of American Patriot missile batteries.
One Western diplomat advised NCS that even a 12 months in the past American suppliers would “almost certainly” have received that contract – a stark illustration that Trump’s rhetoric can incur a severe monetary value.
And whereas Danish officers inform NCS the nation, as a agency NATO ally, will stay a serious purchaser of American navy {hardware}, presumably together with the buy of extra F-35 warfare planes, the air protection programs deal is a potent reminder that high-value arms procurement typically carries a political message.
Back on the Danish frigate, in the Nuuk Fjord, flanked by Greenland’s bleak mountains of sheer black rock, the increase of training naval artillery weapons reverberates into the Arctic abyss, as fighter jets scream overhead.
“The message to all our allies is that we are protecting the Kingdom of Denmark,” Maj. Gen. Andersen advised NCS – much less a warning to Russia and China, maybe, than a plea to the US for respect as a succesful and dedicated Arctic ally.