Trump repeats desire for Greenland after crunch talks
Nandita Bose, Simon Lewis and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen |
President Donald Trump has reiterated that the US needs Greenland and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island, even as he says “something will work out” with respect to the future governance of the Danish overseas territory.
The remarks, which came after a high-stakes meeting between US, Danish and Greenlandic officials, indicate that there are still fundamental, if not intractable, differences between how Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk see the political future of the island.
“Greenland is very important for the national security, including of Denmark,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
“And the problem is there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland, but there’s everything we can do. You found that out last week with Venezuela,” he said.
After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance at the White House on Wednesday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt said the US and Denmark would form a working group to discuss a broad array of concerns regarding the island that could meet in the coming weeks.
But they also made clear that Washington had not budged on its position that it must acquire Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark that is strategically located and rich in minerals.
Rasmussen and Motzfeldt described such an outcome as an unacceptable breach of sovereignty.
“We didn’t manage to change the American position,” Rasmussen told reporters outside the Danish embassy in Washington.
“It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland.”
Trump has not ruled out taking Greenland by force.
Before the two-hour meeting, he argued on social media that NATO would become far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the US.
“Anything less than that is unacceptable”, he wrote.
In recent weeks, he has frequently repeated longstanding claims that acquiring Greenland is a national security imperative and that Denmark is not capable of warding off Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic region.
Greenland and Denmark say the island is not for sale, that threats of force are reckless and security concerns should be resolved among allies.
Prominent EU countries have backed Denmark, a member of the NATO alliance.
Before the meeting, Greenland and Denmark said they had begun to increase their military presence in and around Greenland in close co-operation with NATO allies, as part of their promise to beef up Arctic defence.
Late on Wednesday, a Danish Air Force plane landed at Nuuk airport and personnel in military fatigues disembarked, footage showed.
The Danish military will support the preparation of exercise activity, according to the nation’s Joint Arctic Command.
Germany, Sweden and Norway have also announced that they would send military personnel to the island.
In their remarks to reporters, Rasmussen and Motzfeldt called the meeting respectful and emphasised that Denmark shared US concerns about Arctic security.
But they firmly rejected the idea of the island becoming American.
While Trump has at times portrayed the island as besieged by Russian and Chinese ships, Rasmussen rejected that characterisation, saying “it is not a true narrative that we have Chinese warships all around the place”.
Trump’s desire for Greenland contrasts with Americans’ opposition to annexation of the Arctic island, according to a new poll.
Just 17 per cent of Americans approved of Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland, and substantial majorities of Democrats and Republicans opposed using military force to annex the island, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Reuters
