Denmark’s government said Tuesday that it would start deploying conscripts to Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump.
“Conscripts will be deployed alongside professional soldiers and will fully participate in all missions,” Defence Minister Jeppe Bruus said in a response to a parliamentary question.
Broadcaster TV2 had reported that the military was considering deploying conscripts to Greenland, where it has strengthened its presence in response to pressure from the United States.
US Vice President JD Vance last year accused Denmark of having neglected the security of its giant Arctic territory.
Tensions have mounted around Greenland after Trump ramped up threats to annex the Danish territory to safeguard US security.
But he backed down in January from several weeks of threats, announcing that he had reached a “framework” agreement on Greenland with NATO’s secretary general, without giving details.
Denmark extended the length of its mandatory military service to 11 months last year and opened it up to women in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
With the longer service, “conscripts are trained so that they can take part in the execution of the armed forces’ missions,” Bruus said.
In Greenland “conscripts will be assigned to tasks that do not require longer specialised training,” he said.
However, he did not specify when conscripts would start arriving or how many would be stationed in Greenland.
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