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Denmark’s Overseas Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland’s Overseas Minister Vivian Motzfeldt converse at a information convention on the Embassy of Denmark in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
John McDonnell/AP
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John McDonnell/AP
WASHINGTON — A prime Danish official mentioned Wednesday {that a} “basic disagreement” over Greenland stays with President Donald Trump after talks in Washington with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The 2 sides, nonetheless, agreed to create a working group to debate methods to work by means of variations as Trump continues to name for a U.S. takeover of Denmark’s Arctic territory of Greenland.
“The group, in our view, ought to deal with tips on how to tackle the American safety issues, whereas on the similar time respecting the pink traces of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Overseas Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen instructed reporters after a extremely anticipated assembly wherein Greenland’s overseas minister additionally participated
Trump is making an attempt to make the case that NATO ought to assist the U.S. purchase the world’s largest island and says something lower than it being beneath American management is unacceptable.
Denmark has introduced plans to spice up the nation’s army presence within the Arctic and North Atlantic as Trump tries to justify his requires a U.S. takeover of the huge territory by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their designs on Greenland.
Vance and Rubio met with Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Overseas Minister Vivian Motzfeldt for roughly an hour to debate Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
However a number of hours earlier than the officers sat down, Trump reiterated on his social media website that the U.S. “wants Greenland for the aim of Nationwide Safety.” He added that “NATO must be main the way in which for us to get it” and that in any other case Russia or China would — “AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!”
“NATO turns into way more formidable and efficient with Greenland within the fingers of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Something lower than that’s unacceptable.”
In response, Greenland’s representatives to the U.S. and Canada posted on social media, “Why do not you ask us?” and famous the low proportion of island residents who favor turning into a part of the U.S.
Denmark bolstering presence in Arctic
In Copenhagen, Danish Protection Minister Troels Lund Poulsen introduced a rise in Denmark’s “army presence and train exercise” within the Arctic and the North Atlantic, “in shut cooperation with our allies”.
Poulsen mentioned at a information convention the stepped-up army presence was crucial in a safety setting wherein “nobody can predict what’s going to occur tomorrow.”
“Because of this from immediately and within the coming time there will likely be an elevated army presence in and round Greenland of plane, ships and troopers, together with from different NATO allies,” Poulsen mentioned.
Different NATO allies have been arriving in Greenland together with Danish personnel, he mentioned. Poulsen declined to call the opposite international locations contributing to elevated Arctic presence, saying that it’s as much as the allies to announce their very own participation.
Earlier, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X that “some officers from the Swedish Armed Forces are arriving in Greenland immediately” as a part of a bunch from a number of allied international locations. “Collectively, they’ll put together occasions inside the framework of the Danish train Operation Arctic Endurance,” Kristersson mentioned. Two Norwegian army personnel additionally will likely be despatched to Greenland to map out additional cooperation with allies, the nation’s Protection Minister Tore O. Sandvik instructed newspaper VG.
Greenlanders need the U.S. to again off
Individuals stroll alongside a avenue in downtown of Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday.
Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
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Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, mentioned Tuesday that “if we’ve to decide on between the US and Denmark right here and now, we select Denmark. We select NATO. We select the Kingdom of Denmark. We select the EU.”
Requested about these feedback, Trump replied: “I disagree with him. I do not know who he’s. I do not know something about him. However, that is going to be a giant drawback for him.”
Greenland is strategically essential as a result of, as local weather change causes the ice to soften, it opens up the potential for shorter commerce routes to Asia. That additionally may make it simpler to extract and transport untapped deposits of crucial minerals that are wanted for computer systems and telephones.
Trump says Greenland can be “important” to the US’ Golden Dome missile protection program. He additionally has mentioned he desires the island to develop America’s safety and has repeatedly cited what he says is the risk from Russian and Chinese language ships as a motive to regulate it.
However specialists and Greenlanders query that declare.
“The one Chinese language I see is once I go to the quick meals market,” heating engineer Lars Vintner mentioned. He mentioned he regularly goes crusing and looking and has by no means seen Russian or Chinese language ships.
His buddy, Hans Nørgaard, agreed, including “what has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump about all these ships is simply fantasy.”
Denmark has mentioned the U.S, which already has a army presence, can enhance its bases on Greenland. The U.S. is occasion to a 1951 treaty that provides it broad rights to arrange army bases there with the consent of Denmark and Greenland.
For that motive, “safety is only a cowl,” Vintner mentioned, suggesting Trump really desires to personal the island to earn money from its untapped pure sources.
Mikaelsen, the scholar, mentioned Greenlanders profit from being a part of Denmark, which supplies free well being care, training and funds throughout research, and “I do not need the U.S. to take that away from us.”
Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, together with Denmark’s ambassador to the U.S., deliberate to satisfy later Wednesday with senators from the Arctic Caucus, A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers can be heading to Copenhagen this week to see Danish and Greenlandic officers.
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