German Defense Minister plans to visit Greenland

German Defense Minister wants to show solidarity with Greenland and plans to visit the island, he says.

The German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, plans to visit Greenland together with his Danish colleague, Troels Lund Poulsen (L), in September.

This is reported by the German news agency dpa and several other German media.

– Because I want to see Greenland and show our solidarity, says Pistorius according to Tagesspiel.

According to dpa, he believes that it is important to be visible in the North Atlantic and the Arctic.

The German Defense Minister spoke about the possible visit when he was in Copenhagen on Monday to meet with Troels Lund Poulsen.

The focus here was on ground-based air defense, maritime security and strengthened defense cooperation, according to a press release from the Ministry of Defense.

Cooperation on the North Atlantic

Last week, Denmark entered into a partnership with Germany, Canada and Norway on maritime security in the North Atlantic.

The countries will cooperate on training and exercises as well as defense equipment and procurement, among other things, it has been previously reported.

If Pistorius ends up visiting Greenland with the Danish Minister of Defense, it would not be the first time that the world’s largest island has been visited by European politicians this year.

As recently as two weeks ago, French President Emmanuel Macron also visited Greenland.

At a press conference in connection with that visit, Macron also sent a statement of solidarity to Denmark and the Greenlandic people.

The international attention comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump repeatedly expressing his interest in gaining control of Greenland.

Earlier this year, US Vice President J.D. Vance also paid a brief visit to the US military base Pituffik, located in Greenland.

Both Greenland and Denmark have flatly denied that the United States can gain control of Greenland.