Denmark boosted military spending by $2 billion amid President Donald Trump’s bid to acquire its prized Arctic territory, Greenland.
After saying earlier this month that Denmark had neglected defense spending for Greenland for years, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen announced Monday that there would be increased military spending for the Arctic, accounting for 14.6 billion Danish kroner, or $2.05 billion.
The funding will go toward three new Arctic naval vessels to patrol waters around Greenland and the Arctic region, two long-range drones, and the expansion of programs to provide young Greenlanders with basic military training.
“We must face the fact that there are serious challenges regarding security and defense in the Arctic and North Atlantic. For this reason, we must strengthen our presence in the region. That is the objective of this agreement, which paves the way for further initiatives already this year,” Poulsen said.
The news comes after Trump called for the United States to purchase Greenland due to its geopolitical significance, strategic location, and valuable deposits of critical minerals. Earlier this month, he refused to rule out using military force to acquire the Arctic island, arguing that controlling Greenland is a “necessity” for economic security. His hopes have met fierce resistance from Denmark’s leaders, who said there is no chance the U.S. will acquire its territory.
“Trump will not have Greenland,” Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said Tuesday. “Greenland is Greenland. And the Greenlandic people are a people, also in the sense of international law. … This is also why we have said time and again that it is ultimately Greenland that decides Greenland’s situation.”
Denmark’s focus on growing its military presence follows increasing concerns that China and Russia pose a significant threat in the Arctic region.
Last month, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service published a report warning that China’s growing influence over Russia had raised the risk of military conflict in the Arctic region.
“The Arctic is of considerable military strategic importance as a deployment area for nuclear-armed submarines, which can hide beneath the ice and, in the event of conflict, strike most of North America, Europe, and Russia,” the report said.
“The military threat from Russia against NATO will increase over the coming years,” the report continued, adding that “China’s relationship with the West is likely to become increasingly conflict-ridden.”
On Trump’s first day in office, he said acquiring Greenland was of vital importance due to Russia’s and China’s presence in the Arctic region.
“Greenland is necessary not for us — it’s necessary for international security,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “You have Russian boats all over the place, you have China’s boats all over the place — warships — and [Denmark] can’t maintain it.”
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Denmark’s new military budget pushes the country closer to meeting Trump’s call for NATO members to contribute 5% of GDP toward defense spending.
In 2024, Denmark reached the 2% NATO target for the first time after Trump put pressure on allies to increase allocations for their military spending. Denmark’s military spending accounted for 2.37% of the country’s GDP that year, meaning it had met NATO’s minimum target six years sooner than originally anticipated. Denmark spent 1.65% of its GDP on defense in 2023.