The UK is working with Nato allies to bolster security within the Arctic and will send British troops to Greenland.
There are reports that military chiefs are drawing up plans for a possible Nato mission to Greenland, which could involve British soldiers, warships and planes being deployed to the island.
It comes as President Donald Trump has insisted he wants control over Greenland and has not ruled out the prospect of using military force to seize the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said discussions about securing the High North against Russia and China were a part of Nato’s ‘business as usual’ reasonably than a response to the US military threat.
But she said the UK agreed with President Trump that the Arctic Circle ‘is becoming an increasingly contested a part of the world with the ambitions of (Vladimir) Putin and China’.
‘Whilst we haven’t seen the appalling consequences in that a part of the world that we’ve seen in Ukraine, it is de facto vital that we do every part that we are able to with all of our Nato allies to be certain that we have now an efficient deterrent in that a part of the globe against Putin,’ she said.
Trump has said he desires to get control over Greenland, which has a strategic location and natural resources, adding ‘if we don’t do it the straightforward way, we’re going to do it the hard way.
But former UK ambassador to the US Lord Peter Mandelson said he didn’t consider Trump would use the military against a Nato ally.
‘President Trump is just not going to land on Greenland, take Greenland by force,’ he said. ‘He’s not a idiot.
‘What’s going to occur is there’s going to be loads of discussion, loads of consultation, loads of negotiation and at the top of the day, we’re all going to must wake as much as the truth that the Arctic needs securing against China and Russia.
‘And when you ask me who’s going to steer in that effort to secure, everyone knows, don’t we, that it’s going to be the USA.’
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey supported the operation, telling reporters: ‘The UK should offer to send troops to Greenland as a part of a joint Nato operation under Danish and UK command.
‘If Trump is serious about security, he’d comply with participate and drop his outrageous threats. Tearing the Nato alliance apart would only play into the hands of Putin.’
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