(Dec 23): Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said his country won’t bow to Donald Trump’s demand to hand over Greenland and summoned the US ambassador to explain his president’s comments.
Lokke held talks with Ambassador Ken Howery in Copenhagen on Monday after Trump announced plans to appoint Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as a special envoy to Greenland — an autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark — with the aim of making it part of the US.
The meeting served “to say ‘no’ and draw a clear red line, but of course also simply to ask for an explanation,” Lokke said in an interview with local broadcaster TV2 late Monday. “An attack on one part of the kingdom is an attack on the entire kingdom.”
Trump raised the idea of buying Greenland during his first term in 2019, but has intensified his push to gain control of the world’s biggest island since returning to power in January. In a press briefing late Monday, he said that he doesn’t want Greenland for energy or mineral reserves, but because Denmark has not devoted enough spending to protect the island.
“We have to have it,” Trump said. “They have a very small population, and I don’t know — they say Denmark, but Denmark has spent no money. They have no military protection.”
The claim on Greenland isn’t the only problem that the Trump administration is posing for Denmark.
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Just hours after Trump’s appointment of Landry, the US Interior Department suspended leases for all five wind farms under construction off the East Coast, intensifying pressure on Danish developer Orsted A/S. The company, which is 50.1%-owned by the Danish state, is a co-developer of Revolution Wind — one of the affected projects — and now faces the risk of severe losses if the project stalls.
In his interview with TV2, Lokke emphasised that Greenland is protected by the US’ commitments to the Nato and the Danish government is pushing allies to pay greater attention to the Arctic region. Denmark and the US are already bound by a 1951 defence agreement that allows Washington to operate military facilities on Greenland.
The territory hosts the US-run Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, which monitors space activity and provides missile warnings. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has signalled she’s open to a broader American security presence.
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But Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen both pushed back on Trump’s demand, with the latter stressing that the special envoy doesn’t change his view.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and its territorial integrity must be respected,” Nielsen wrote in a Facebook post.
Following the recent escalation, European leaders have showed Denmark and Greenland they are not standing alone. One of the most outspoken allies, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Nuuk earlier in the year and reaffirmed in post on X “France’s unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland.”
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