Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated Monday an American takeover of Greenland would quantity to the tip of the NATO navy alliance. Her feedback got here in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed name for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come back below U.S. management within the aftermath of the weekend navy operation in Venezuela.
The dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas to seize chief Nicolás Maduro and his spouse early Saturday left the world shocked, and heightened issues in Denmark and Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of the Danish kingdom and thus a part of NATO.
Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens Frederik Nielsen, blasted the president’s feedback and warned of catastrophic penalties. Quite a few European leaders expressed solidarity with them.
“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen instructed Danish broadcaster TV2 on Monday. “That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”
20-day timeline deepens fears
Trump known as repeatedly throughout his presidential transition and the early months of his second time period for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has not dominated out navy pressure to take management of the island. His feedback Sunday, together with telling reporters “let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days,” additional deepened fears that the U.S. was planning an intervention in Greenland within the close to future.
Frederiksen additionally stated Trump “should be taken seriously” when he says he needs Greenland. “We will not accept a situation where we and Greenland are threatened in this way,” she added.
Nielsen, in a information convention Monday, stated Greenland can’t be in comparison with Venezuela. He urged his constituents to remain calm and united.
“We are not in a situation where we think that there might be a takeover of the country overnight and that is why we are insisting that we want good cooperation,” he stated.
Nielsen added: “The situation is not such that the United States can simply conquer Greenland.”
Ask Rostrup, a TV2 political journalist, wrote on the station’s stay weblog Monday that Mette beforehand would have flatly rejected the concept of an American takeover of Greenland. However now, Rostrup wrote, the rhetoric has escalated a lot that she has to acknowledge the likelihood.
Trump slams Denmark’s safety efforts in Greenland
Trump on Sunday additionally mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s nationwide safety posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.
“It’s so strategic right now,” Trump had instructed reporters Sunday as he flew again to Washington from his dwelling in Florida. “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
He added: “We’d like Greenland from the standpoint of nationwide safety, and Denmark just isn’t going to have the ability to do it.”
However Ulrik Pram Gad, a worldwide safety professional from the Danish Institute for Worldwide Research, wrote in a report final yr that “there are indeed Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic, but these vessels are too far away to see from Greenland with or without binoculars.”
U.S. area base in northwestern Greenland
Greenlanders and Danes have been additional rankled this weekend by a social media put up following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The put up exhibits an illustrated map of Greenland within the colours of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON.”
“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark’s chief envoy to Washington, stated in a put up responding to Miller, who’s married to Trump’s influential deputy chief of workers Stephen Miller.
The U.S. Division of Protection operates the distant Pituffik Area Base in northwestern Greenland. It was constructed following a 1951 protection settlement between Denmark and america. It helps missile warning, missile protection and area surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.
On Denmark’s mainland, the partnership between the U.S. and Denmark has been long-lasting. The Danes purchase American F-35 fighter jets and simply final yr, Denmark’s parliament accredited a invoice to permit U.S. navy bases on Danish soil.
Critics say the vote ceded Danish sovereignty to the U.S. The laws widens a earlier navy settlement, made in 2023 with the Biden administration, the place U.S. troops had broad entry to Danish air bases within the Scandinavian nation.
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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland, and Dazio from Berlin.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
