BERLIN, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Germany will send 13 soldiers to Greenland on Thursday as part of a reconnaissance mission with other European nations, the German government and defence ministry said on Wednesday, following demands by President Donald Trump for Washington to have control of the island. The mission, which comes at the request of Denmark, will take place from Thursday to Saturday, aiming to explore possible military contributions to bolster the security of the region, a defence ministry statement said. This could, for example, include maritime surveillance, it added. Trump has repeatedly said in recent weeks that Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark that is strategically located and rich in minerals, is vital to U.S. security, and that the United States must own it to prevent Russia or China from occupying it.
This is both frustratingly symbolic and meaningfully symbolic. More would be better. But even a single soldier is a serious and important symbol of commitment and literal “skin in the game”.
Denmark sent a group to prepare the logistics of larger troops deployments, so Greenland probably can’t support much more troops right now. I assume the immediate goal is to have troops of as many countries as possible in the ground, and increase the numbers later.
I think the number of nations represented there is more important than the number of soldiers.
I don’t know what military operation Trump has in mind, but even his most aggressive war mongers would hesitate to attack representatives from all of the NATO countries at once.