WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump reiterated on Wednesday (Jan 14) that the US wants Greenland and that Denmark can’t be relied upon to guard the island, whilst he mentioned that “one thing will work out” with respect to the longer term governance of the Danish abroad territory.
The remarks, which got here after a high-stakes assembly between US, Danish and Greenlandic officers, point out that there are nonetheless elementary, if not intractable, variations between how Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk see the political way forward for the island.
“Greenland is essential for the nationwide safety, together with of Denmark,” Trump instructed reporters within the Oval Workplace. “And the issue is there’s not a factor that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China desires to occupy Greenland, however there’s every part we are able to do. You discovered that out final week with Venezuela,” he added.
Earlier within the day, the international ministers of Denmark and Greenland met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance on the White Home.
Following that assembly, Danish Overseas Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt mentioned the US and Denmark would kind a working group to debate a broad array of issues relating to the island that might meet within the coming weeks.
However in addition they made clear that Washington had not budged on its place that it should purchase Greenland, an final result Rasmussen and Motzfeldt described as an unacceptable breach of sovereignty.
“We did not handle to vary the American place,” Rasmussen instructed reporters outdoors the Danish embassy in Washington after the assembly concluded.
“It is clear that the president has this want of conquering over Greenland.”
Rasmussen added that a US takeover of Greenland was “completely not vital”.
“We subsequently nonetheless have a elementary disagreement, however we additionally conform to disagree.”
He mentioned the difficulty was “very emotional” for the folks of Greenland and Denmark, a steadfast US ally whose troops died alongside People in Afghanistan and, controversially, Iraq.
“Concepts that may not respect territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and the suitable of self-determination of the Greenlandic individuals are, in fact, completely unacceptable,” Rasmussen added.
“NOT FOR SALE”
Earlier than the assembly, which lasted round two hours, Trump argued on social media that NATO would change into much more formidable and efficient with Greenland within the arms of the US “Something lower than that’s unacceptable,” he wrote.
In current weeks, he has incessantly repeated longstanding claims that buying Greenland is a nationwide safety crucial, and that Denmark shouldn’t be able to avoiding Russian and Chinese language affect within the Arctic area.
Greenland and Denmark say the island shouldn’t be on the market, and that threats of drive are reckless and safety issues ought to be resolved amongst allies. Outstanding EU international locations have backed Denmark, which is a member of the NATO alliance.
Forward of the assembly, Greenland and Denmark mentioned they’d begun to extend their navy presence in and round Greenland in shut cooperation with NATO allies, as a part of their promise to beef up Arctic defence.
The elevated navy presence would come with a variety of train actions all through 2026, in response to the Danish defence ministry.
Through the press convention, Rasmussen and Motzfeldt referred to as the assembly respectful and emphasised that Denmark shared US issues about Arctic safety. However they firmly rejected the concept of the island changing into American.
Whereas Trump has at instances portrayed the island as besieged by Russian and Chinese language ships, Rasmussen rejected that characterisation on Wednesday, saying “it’s not a real narrative that now we have Chinese language warships throughout the place”.
