Denmark is able to defend its values, Mette Frederiksen says, as Trump renews threats to grab the Danish territory.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has stated her nation faces a “decisive second” over the way forward for Greenland after US President Donald Trump renewed his threats to grab the Arctic territory by pressure.
Forward of conferences in Washington, DC, from Monday, on the worldwide scramble for key uncooked supplies, Frederiksen stated that “there’s a battle over Greenland”.
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“This can be a decisive second”, with stakes that transcend the quick situation of Greenland’s future, Frederiksen added in a debate with different Danish political leaders.
“We’re able to defend our values – wherever it’s essential – additionally within the Arctic. We consider in worldwide legislation and in peoples’ proper to self-determination,” the prime minister posted on Fb.
Germany and Sweden backed Denmark towards Trump’s newest claims to the self-governing Danish territory.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned the US’s “threatening rhetoric” after Trump repeated that Washington was “going to do one thing on Greenland, whether or not they prefer it or not”.
“Sweden, the Nordic international locations, the Baltic states, and several other main European international locations stand along with our Danish associates,” Kristersson informed a defence convention in Salen, during which the US basic answerable for NATO took half.
Kristersson stated a US takeover of mineral-rich Greenland can be “a violation of worldwide legislation, and dangers encouraging different international locations to behave in precisely the identical approach”.
Germany reiterated its assist for Denmark and Greenland forward of the Washington discussions.
Earlier than assembly his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, on Monday, German Federal Minister for Overseas Affairs Johann Wadehpul held talks in Iceland to handle the “strategic challenges of the Far North”, based on a Overseas Ministry assertion.
“Safety within the Arctic is changing into increasingly more necessary”, and “is a part of our widespread curiosity in NATO”, he stated at a joint information convention with Icelandic Minister for Overseas Affairs Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir.
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that army chiefs from the UK and different European international locations had been drawing up plans for a doable NATO mission in Greenland.
The newspaper stated that UK officers had begun early-stage talks with Germany, France and others on plans that would contain deploying UK troops, warships and plane to guard Greenland from Russia and China.
UK Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander informed Sky Information that talks on find out how to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin within the Arctic had been “enterprise as traditional”.
“It’s changing into an more and more contested geopolitical area, with Russia and China… you’ll count on us to be speaking to all our allies in NATO about what we are able to do to discourage Russian aggression within the Arctic Circle,” Alexander stated.
In an interview with the Reuters information company, Belgian Minister of Defence Theo Francken stated that NATO ought to launch an operation within the Arctic to handle US safety considerations.
“We’ve got to collaborate, work collectively and present energy and unity,” Francken stated, including that there’s a want for “a NATO operation within the excessive north”.
Francken steered NATO’s Baltic Sentry and Japanese Sentry operations, which mix forces from totally different international locations with drones, sensors and different know-how to watch land and sea, as doable fashions for an “Arctic Sentry”.
Trump claims that controlling Greenland is essential for US nationwide safety due to the rising Russian and Chinese language army exercise within the Arctic.
A Danish colony till 1953, Greenland gained dwelling rule 26 years later and is considering finally loosening its ties with Denmark.
Polls point out that Greenland’s inhabitants strongly oppose a US takeover.
