Stuart Lau and
Danny AeberhardBBC World Service
Bloomberg via Getty Images
A Danish warship off Nuuk, Greenland (April 2025)
Denmark has announced $4.2bn (£3.2bn) of extra defence spending to boost security in the Arctic and North Atlantic regions, including Greenland.
It will also spend $4.5bn buying 16 more F-35 fighter jets from the US, bringing its total fleet of such advanced planes to 43.
“With this… agreement we significantly strengthen the capabilities of the Danish Armed Forces in the region,” Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in a statement on Friday.
The Arctic is at a critical crossroads between North America, Russia and the rest of Europe. The statement by the Danish defence ministry says the purpose of its military is security, and if necessary, defence in the Nato security alliance.
“The task of the Armed Forces is to ensure security throughout the Kingdom – and, if necessary, to defend Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Denmark within the framework of Nato in all domains,” the Chief of Defence, Michael Hyldgaard, told Danish public broadcaster DR, without saying who the potential adversaries were.
Denmark worked on the new defence package with the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
It will buy two new Arctic ships, maritime patrol planes, drones and early warning radar.
Crucially, a new Arctic command headquarters will be set up in the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, alongside a new military unit under Joint Arctic Command in Greenland.
In addition, an undersea cable connecting Greenland and Denmark will be funded.
The struggle for control of the Arctic is accelerating – and riskier than everGreenland in particular is strategically located between North America and Russia. Though the island has wide-ranging autonomy, it remains part of the kingdom of Denmark.
In recent years, there has been increased interest in the vast island’s natural resources, including mining for rare earth minerals, uranium and iron.
Greenland lies on the shortest route from North America to Europe, making it strategically important for the US. The island has been home to a US radar base since the Cold War and also hosts a large American space facility.
US President Donald Trump has suggested the island is crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are “all over the place”.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to acquire Greenland, saying the island was “critical” for national and economic security.
Greenland’s prime minister has said the territory is not for sale, adding that “Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland”.
