Keir Starmer ‘considering’ sending military to Greenland as Trump obsession continues

It is hoped the move could render Trumps desires redundant

It’s pretty clear to most of the world now that US President Donald Trump is hellbent on getting his mitts on Greenland, and he’s made no secret of it either.

Since returning to office at the start of 2025, Donald Trump has been pressing for the acquisition of the icy territory.

Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the US “needs” Greenland for “national security”.

This is the main narrative behind the threats that, by acquiring the territory, the US could expand military operations in the name of fending off Russia and China.

The US president claimed that “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place”.

However, the Danish foreign minister has already refuted this claim, while there are no recorded reports of Chinese or Russian vessels in Greenland’s waters since 2017 when a Chinese ice breaker entered waters near Nuuk.

The last Russian ship to be publicly known to have entered Greenland’s waters was the Russian ‘research’ vessel Yantar back in 2017, which the UK considers a spy ship.

Greenland is, of course, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, which also includes the Faroe Islands.

Many people believe the real reason Trump wants Greenland is for its resources which include rare earth minerals, uranium, iron, zinc, lead, gold, copper, and potentially oil.

Now, The Telegraph has reported that Prime Minister Keir Starmer is considering sending troops to Greenland as a deterrent for US military intervention.

The paper reported that military chiefs are drawing up plans for a possible NATO mission to Greenland involving British soldiers, warships and planes.

While also establishing a further NATO presence on the territory, this move would effectively fulfil Trump's 'desire' to have more troops on the island to ward off the Russians and Chinese.

It is hoped that by fulfilling Trump's "needs" for Greenland, it will render his claims redundant.

However, Transport secretary Heidi Alexander downplayed these reports and said that operations in the Arctic zone around Greenland were part of NATO's "business as usual" rather than a threat to the US.

She told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that UK agreed with Trump that the Arctic Circle “is becoming an increasingly contested part of the world with the ambitions of [Vladimir] Putin and China”.

“Whilst we haven’t seen the appalling consequences in that part of the world that we’ve seen in Ukraine, it is really important that we do everything that we can with all of our Nato allies to ensure that we have an effective deterrent in that part of the globe against Putin.”

Speaking to the media at the White House in a conference about his next steps in Venezuela, Trump also brought back up the subject of Greenland, all whilst wearing a badge of himself on his blazer.

He said: “We are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not because if we don’t, Russia or China will take over Greenland. And we are not going to have Russia or China as a neighbour.

“I’d like to do a deal the easy way, but if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re gonna do it the hard way.”

Despite being a “big fan of Denmark”, Trump refuted Denmark’s historic claims to the land.

He said: “I’m a big fan, but the fact they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land.”

Whilst the Danish colonised Greenland in the 18th century, it is believed the indigenous people arrived on the island around 2,500 BC.

Greenland gained ‘home rule’ in 1979 and controls many of its own matters and has a distinct language and culture from Denmark.