Sending Belgian troops to Greenland is “not on the agenda”

Mr Francken is keen to stress that there are currently no plans for a bilateral or multilateral deployment of Belgian troops to the world’s biggest island that is a self-governing entity within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Speaking during a meeting of the Federal Parliament’s Defence Select Committee, Mr Francken recognised that the new year “has arrived with a storm” and that this is “a precursor of more to come.” The Defence Minister was speaking in response to criticism of the operation by the US military in Venezuela and the threats made by the Americans to Greenland.

Mr Francken noted that after “30 years of underinvestment in hard power, combined with an overly one-sided focus on soft power”, Europe is waking up to a harsh reality: “A world in which our vision of the international legal order is not shared by everyone. The strong do what they want, the weak suffer what they must. Those that sit at the table without any military clout will leave empty-handed”

Mr Francken pointed out that Belgium and Europe in general are currently heavily dependent on the United States for their security. He says that this is the uncomfortable truth. He believes that it is hypocritical to question America’s reliability on the one hand and demand that European troops only be deployed “with American back up” on the other. “Why are we so weak? Because we have cut our defence budgets to the bone.”

The Belgian Defence Minister added that Europe has manoeuvred itself into a weak position: “What is the position we have put ourselves in? What is the position that weak leadership in Europe brought us to?” His answer is that this has resulted in structural shortcomings in intelligence, air defence, refuelling, drones and other essential military capabilities.