Denmark leads military drill with NATO troops in Arctic

The exercise comes amid tensions with President Trump over control of Greenland.

- PHILIPP

DANISH Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, left, meets with Greenlandic Premier Jens Frederik Nielsen.

Greenland NUUK, Denmark is leading a military exercise with hundreds of troops from several European NATO members in Greenland, a maneuver that coincides with months of tensions over the Trump administration's desire for U.S. jurisdiction over the vast Arctic territory.

The Arctic Light 2025 exercise, which follows maneuvers with identical or similar titles in previous years, involves more than 550 service members from Denmark and NATO allies France, Germany, Sweden and Norway, according to the Danish military.

The chief of Denmark's Joint Arctic Command pointed to wariness toward Russia as a "regional superpower" in the far north and highlighted what he called "a very good relationship with the U.S. military." On forces Monday, Danish trained boarding ships with special forces as military observers from the United States, Britain, Canada, Sweden and Germany looked on. Troops descended from helicopters on ropes and climbed up from speedboats in temperatures barely above freezing.