Denmark is ready to defend its values, says Mette Frederiksen, as Trump renews threats to take over Danish territory.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said her country faces a “decisive moment” over the future of Greenland after US President Donald Trump threatened to take over the Arctic region by force.
Ahead of a meeting in Washington, DC on Monday, ahead of a global scramble for the key raw material, Frederiksen said “there is a conflict over Greenland”.
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“This is a decisive moment”, with great potential to go beyond the immediate issue of Greenland’s future, Frederiksen added in discussions with other Danish political leaders.
“We are ready to defend our values - where necessary – also in the Arctic. We believe in international law and the right of people to self-determination,” the prime minister posted on Facebook.
Germany and Sweden backed Denmark against Trump’s latest claims on self-governing Danish territory.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson condemned the US’s “threatening rhetoric” after Trump repeated that Washington was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not”.
“Sweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states and many major European countries stand with our Danish friends,” Kristersen told a defense conference in Selene, attended by the US general in charge of NATO.
Christerson said a US seizure of mineral-rich Greenland would be a “violation of international law and risks encouraging other countries to do the same”.
Germany showed support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of the Washington talks.
Before meeting his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, on Monday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadehpool held talks in Iceland to address “strategic challenges in the Far North,” according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
“Security in the Arctic is becoming more and more important”, and “is part of our common interests in NATO”, he said at a joint press conference with Icelandic Foreign Affairs Minister Thorgerður Katrin Gunnarsdottir.
The United Kingdom’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that the military chiefs of the UK and other European countries are making plans for a possible NATO mission in Greenland.
The newspaper said UK officials had begun early-stage talks with Germany, France and others that would include deploying UK troops, warships and aircraft to protect Greenland from Russia and China.
UK Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander told Sky News that discussions on how to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Arctic were “business as usual”.
“This is becoming an increasingly competitive geopolitical region with Russia and China… We must discuss with all our allies in NATO what we can do to prevent Russian aggression in the Arctic Circle,” Alexander said.
In an interview with Reuters news agency, Belgian Defense Minister Theo Franken said NATO should launch operations in the Arctic to address US security concerns.
“We have to cooperate, work together and show strength and unity,” Franken said, adding that a “NATO operation in the high north” is essential.
Franken suggested NATO’s Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry operations, which combine forces from various countries with drones, sensors and other technology to monitor land and sea, as a possible model for “Arctic Sentry.”
Trump claims that control of Greenland is important to US national security due to increased Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic.
A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule after 26 years and is finally looking to loosen its ties to Denmark.
Polls indicate that Greenland’s population strongly opposes US occupation.