The five countries joined forces to conduct military exercises, but the United States was left out; the former Japanese foreign minister quietly "examined" the island, and it is obvious that the EU circumvented the United States and engaged in rare-earth supply chains; Trump said that "Greenland must be taken", and did not even rule out the use of force.
Underneath the ice, the heat waves flood, and the world’s last strategic treasures are igniting a new round of geo-games.
Arctic military exercises are not a play, but a stand.
Greenland, a place that was previously thought to be “too far from the world”, is now a must-have place for soldiers. From the map, it is like a giant hail, lying between North America and Europe, and whoever controls it is equal to holding the throat of the Arctic navigation.
With the ice layer melting year after year, this future “polar highway” is becoming more and more realistic. From China’s Shanghai to Europe’s Rotterdam, freight ships have shortened by 40 percent, which is not a small number.
On September 14, 2025, Denmark, with Germany, France, Sweden and Norway, launched military exercises over Greenland, code-named "Arctic Light".
550 soldiers, fighter jets, escort ships and helicopters are on the line, and the exercise looks “peaceful”: rescue on water, ecological protection, and defense of critical facilities.
But clearly, these are probably the locations in the Arctic that are the easiest to “wipe out” from, especially in the context of an increasing competition for resources and navigation routes, where there is room for “pure research” or “humanitarian exercises.”
What makes people eye-catching is that the United States, an old player in Arctic affairs, has been turned away. Not only was it not invited, but it was also explicitly excluded. This is a vote of no confidence cast by Nordic countries to the Trump administration.
Denmark even announced that it would spend US $9.1 billion to purchase European self-produced air defense systems, bypassing US-made "Patriot" missiles, whose symbolic significance is far greater than its actual combat value.
It should be known that the defense of the Nordic countries in the past few decades has almost all depended on the United States, and now this "background bill" is obviously not smelly.
At the same time, the U.S. movement in Greenland has not stopped.The Toulouse Air Force Base expansion project has expanded beyond its original scope, and the frequency of the exercises has almost tripled in three years.
This scenario has nerved Denmark and publicly criticized the United States for engaging in "modern colonialism".The Arctic Council has also been unable to sit down, warning that such a practice could trigger a new round of arms race.
To put it bluntly, this military exercise in Nordic countries is not only a display, but also a "rule-setting": the Arctic is not anyone's back garden, nor is it an American cash machine.
Everyone can see that the real meaning of this military exercise is to make the Trump administration understand that it wants to dominate the Arctic and first ask Europe whether it wants to.
Rare earth storm: global anxiety hides behind the competition for resources
If the military deployment is clear, then the resource competition is the dark war, and under the foot of Greenland is not only ice snow, but also a super mine buried with 30 percent of the world's rare earth reserves.
Missiles, radar, F-35, smartphones, electric vehicles, where the rare earth is, where the chain is.
On the eve of Vice President Wallace’s visit, the U.S. Geological Survey silently doubled the estimate of Greenland’s rare earth reserves.This “coincidence” is clearly not a scientific discovery, but a political signal: we are staring at the land.
At the same time, Japan is not idle. In May 2025, former Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa landed in Greenland in the name of scientific research, and also brought the "Future II" scientific research ship with ice-breaking capabilities.
On the surface, it is an ecological investigation, but in fact it is stepping on the spot. Japan's electronics, automobile, and military industrial enterprises all regard rare earths as their lifeblood. Once the Sino-US game intensifies, Japan must find spare tires.
What's more interesting is that Japan is not going it alone this time, but following the EU. In August, the European Union directly proposed in Tokyo to establish a rare earth supply chain "independent of China and the United States". To put it bluntly, traditional allies are no longer willing to be led by the nose by the United States.
According to the Danish Institute for Arctic Studies, in two years, U.S. NGOs have delivered $80 million to the Greenland Independence Movement, which is almost one-sixth of the island’s fiscal budget.
This kind of "sugar-coated cannonball", in conjunction with the Trump administration's tough stance of "buying Greenland" at every turn, has formed double pressure from top to bottom. The Danish government was also in a hurry, and quickly passed the Foreign Intervention Defense Law to make foreign political contributions a criminal offence.
However, the people of Greenland do not buy bills to the United States. environmental organizations have repeatedly spoken out, criticizing the U.S. exploration behavior to damage the ecology, leading to the accelerated collapse of the glacier.
Surveys show that the U.S. sensitivity in the local has fallen from 58% to 23%. the Greenland autonomous government is also in two difficulties: on the one hand, the economic development needs to develop resources, and on the other hand, the ecological environment can not withstand the heavy pressure, this high-pressure boiler situation, can explode at any time.
This resource battle is not only for "mining", but also for the rebuilding of global economic chains.Once Greenland's rare-earth mining is shaped, the map of global high-tech industries will be rewritten.
Alliance fission: a rehearsal for great powers to reshape the international order
The game of Greenland is not just a land dispute, a resource dispute, but also an alliance dispute, a dispute of order.In the past few decades, the United States has firmly controlled the Western world through the NATO system, but now, the old allies have their own "small calculator".
French Foreign Minister Barroso directly criticized that some countries "the behavior of the territory of other countries is reminiscent of the colonial era."
The Danish prime minister has made it clear that Greenland is part of Denmark and cannot be sold or negotiated.
This is not a diplomatic statement, but a statement of position.The EU is now more willing to be a "strategically autonomous" player than to be America's "sub-driver."From rare-earth to defense, to diplomatic speech, Europe is gradually getting rid of its dependence on the United States.
The Arctic Council has been the main platform for coordinating cooperation among countries, but as the United States increasingly tends to act unilaterally, other member states have begun to look for alternatives.
China's Foreign Ministry has long stated that Arctic affairs should follow international law and respect the legitimate rights and interests of coastal states and stakeholders.Russia is also clearly opposed to the militarization of the Arctic.
In addition to legislative counter-intervention, the national security intelligence department has also exposed that the United States is supporting local separatists and trying to operate an independent referendum through the "shadow special envoy."
This is no longer the infiltration of "soft power", but a naked political project. Denmark's response is very practical: grasping the legal defense line with one hand, wooing Nordic neighbors to form defense alliances with the other, and using regional linkage to resist the pressure of big powers.
In the end, Greenland is no longer “who’s frozen chicken legs in the refrigerator,” but it has become a target for the restructuring of global order. Trump has tried to address today’s global game with a hundred-year-old colonial thinking, which has instead pushed the West inside to the edge of division.
Trump could scream, “Greenland belongs to us,” and the deployment would put pressure on Denmark, but the reality is that Europe is no longer willing to stand behind the U.S. as a visitor.
Japan and the European Union are heating up the supply chain, and American traditional influence is being weakened.The Arctic continent, which is frozen, is being written into a new script for international relations in the 21st century, and this drama is no longer singed alone by the United States.
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Military exercises "Arctic Light" held in Greenland on September 15, 2025 09:35:50 source: Central TV News