Europe plans forces to defend Greenland

NATO RESPONSE IN WAKE OF TRUMP WARNING

- BY MARTYN BROWN

BRITISH troops could be sent to Greenland as part of a Nato mission to help guard the Arctic for Donald Trump.

Sir Keir Starmer is said to share the US president’s view that action must be taken to deter Russian and Chinese threats in the polar region.

Mr Trump has recently ramped up warnings he could seize Greenland for security reasons, and has not ruled out using American military force to do so.

Military chiefs are drawing up plans for a possible Nato mission on the world’s largest island.

This could involve British soldiers, warships and planes being deployed to the territory.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said talks about securing the High North against the two superpowers were part of Nato’s “business as usual” rather than a response to the US military threat.

She said the UK agreed with Mr Trump that the Arctic Circle “is becoming an increasingly contested part of the world with the ambitions of Putin and China”.

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