The Netherlands is to send dozens of navy personnel to Greenland as part of an international mission next month, defence minister Dilan Yesilgöz has confirmed.

Yesilgöz would not give an exact number when she revealed details of the plan on evening talk show Goedenavond Nederland, but said “a few vehicles” would also be sent on the mission.

She said the exercise was significant because of the “increasing activities of the Russians and the Chinese” in the Arctic Circle.

She insisted it had “nothing to do” with US president Donald Trump’s repeated declaration that he wants to buy the ice-clad, mineral-rich island.

“It’s a Nato exercise and the United States is also in Nato,” Yesilgöz said, even though no US military personnel are taking part.

Trump threatened sanctions against the Netherlands in January after Yesilgöz’s predecessor as defence minister, Ruben Brekelmans, said one naval officer was taking part in a Nato exercise in Greenland, but the US president later withdrew the threat.