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

The Arctic Light 2025 exercise, which follows manoeuvers 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.

Its stated aim is to strengthen the operational readiness of the Danish armed forces around Greenland, a strategically located island that is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.

The military says its personnel is training along with allies to reinforce “their joint response capabilities against destabilising threats to Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, and NATO in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions.”

Russian military operations in the Arctic are of particular concern.

Major General Søren Andersen, chief of Denmark's Arctic Command, said Russia had been building up its capabilities in the Arctic for the last 20 years.

"Russia is a regional superpower in the Arctic. And I think we can see that in the Bering strait between Alaska and Russia, that they conduct operations that we have never seen before," he said.

Denmark is moving to strengthen its military presence around Greenland.

In late January, the government announced a roughly 14.6 billion kroner (2.3 billion US dollar) agreement with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands to “improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region.”

Those will include three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.

In the Arctic Light exercise, which started September 9 and ends on Friday, Denmark is deploying a frigate, two helicopters, two F-16 fighter jets and personnel from all three branches of the armed forces, including special forces.

The French navy is sending a tanker aircraft and mountain infantry equipped with drones.

The Danish military didn't mention the current tensions with Washington.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he seeks US jurisdiction over Greenland.

He has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich territory.

Speaking on the frigate Niels Juel, Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, told reporters that Denmark had shown that it is "willing to do more here in the Arctic."

He said he had invited US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to join Greenlandic, Danish, Swedish and Icelandic defence ministers at a media event on Monday, but that he was unable to attend.

Denmark and Greenland have said the island is not for sale and condemned reports of the US gathering intelligence there.

Last month, Denmark’s foreign minister summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen for talks after the main national broadcaster reported that at least three people with connections to Trump had been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.

AP video shot by: Philipp Jenne