NATO allies look to new Arctic mission to head off Trump’s threats to annex Greenland

A number of NATO countries, understood to be led by Germany, are to propose a new joint NATO mission called ‘Arctic Sentry’ to monitor and protect security interests in the Arctic region in a bid to head off the US Trump Administration’s desire to annex Greenland.

This mission concept, first reported by Bloomberg on 11 January 2026, could potentially take its blueprint from NATO’s ‘Baltic Sentry’ mission, which was initiated in January 2025 enhance NATO’s military presence in the Baltic Sea and improve the allies’ ability to respond to suspected Russian attacks on critical underwater infrastructure.

While US President Donald Trump had previously talked about buying or otherwise acquiring Greenland during his first presidential term, his administration’s return to the concept – and in particular the refusal by Trump and some of his advisors to rule out using US military force to acquire the territory – is causing renewed consternation at NATO.

A hostile US annexing of Greenland, most alarmingly, would raise the bizarre and ominous prospect of Denmark having to invoke NATO’s Article 5 mutual defence contingency against the alliance’s most powerful member.

The NATO ‘Baltic Sentry’ proposal would serve to take the wind out of Trump’s argument that Greenland needs to be secured against the threat from Russia and China and that only the United States can do this – hence the need to take over the territory.

Some within the Trump Administration, such as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, have even questioned Denmark’s provenance over Greenland, whereas in reality the territory has been associated with both Denmark and Norway since 986 AD – almost 800 years prior to the existence of the United States – while Greenland came under full Danish control in 1814.

Notwithstanding NATO’s ‘Arctic Sentry’ proposal, Trump’s purported justifications for needing to acquire Greenland for security reasons make little sense. In 1951 the United States and Denmark signed a defence agreement in relation to the territory allowing the US government “to improve and generally to fit the area for military use” and to “construct, install, maintain, and operate facilities and equipment” there. While there are currently only around 150 US military personnel stationed in Greenland, at Pituffik Space Base, under the agreement with Denmark there is no effectively no limit to the number of US military personnel that can be deployed there.

Moreover, Trump’s assertion that Greenland is under threat from Russia and China is entirely at odds with how Trump has previously regarded Russia, since he has previously acquiesced in relations with Moscow, at times siding with Russia over Ukraine and infamously siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin over claims of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election during a July 2018 summit in Helsinki.

Meanwhile, the political leaders of Denmark and Greenland are clearly running short of patience regarding Trump’s avarice.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated at a political rally on 11 January, “We are at a crossroads, and this is a fateful moment. What is at stake is bigger than what the eye can see, because if what we experience from the Americans is that they are actually turning their backs on the western alliance, that they are turning their backs on our NATO co-operation by threatening an ally, which we have not experienced before, then everything will stop.”

Frederiksen has previously rejected Trump outright, telling him that Greenland is not for sale and that any idea of annexation is “absurd”.

On 12 January Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, stated on his Facebook page that “it is important to be absolutely clear: Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and part of NATO through the Commonwealth. This means that our security and defence belong in NATO. That is a fundamental and firm line.”

In the US, even Republican politicians have broken ranks with Trump over the Greenland issue.

“This is appalling,” Republican Representative for Nebraska Don Bacon told CNN on 6 January. “Greenland is a NATO ally. Denmark is one of our best friends … so the way we’re treating them is really demeaning and it has no upside.”

Referring to the Trump Administration’s Greenland rhetoric as one of the “silliest things” to come out of the White House over the past year, Bacon urged his fellow Republicans to join him in taking a stand. “I hope other Republicans line up behind me and make it clear to the White House this is wrong,” he said.