US President Donald Trump and a senior member of his administration have stressed that Greenland is “not for sale”, a lawmaker from Greenland has said. Renew the threats to take over the autonomous Danish territory.
Aja Chemnitz, a member of the Danish parliament representing Greenland, welcomed next week’s talks between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Danish and Greenlandic officials.
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“I think it’s very important to find a solution,” she told Al Jazeera on Thursday.
But Chemnitz stressed that Greenland’s position on autonomy remained unchanged. “Greenland is not for sale and Greenland will never be for sale,” she said.
Trump has said this repeatedly since taking office in January last year Want to take over Greenland emphasizes the island’s “strategic” importance in the Arctic region.
“We need Greenland from a national security point of view. It’s very strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered all over by Russian and Chinese ships. We need Greenland from a national security point of view,” the US president told reporters on Sunday.
But Trump is shocked strongly reprimanded Greenland and other major US allies, including Denmark, the European Union and Canada.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden stressed their commitment to “preserving security, stability and cooperation in the Arctic”.
“Security in the Arctic depends on respecting the basic principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, including transgression of boundaries,” the minister said. joint statement.
“We reiterate together that matters concerning Denmark and Greenland are to be decided by Denmark and Greenland alone.”
Yet despite that opposition, the Trump administration is raising the possibility of taking over Greenland — and has refused to rule out the possibility. military action.
“All options are always on the table for President Trump,” White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt told reporters on Wednesday.
“But I will just say that the president’s first choice is always diplomacy,” she said.
‘Finding solutions is important’
Fears of US military action to take control of Greenland have increased after the Trump administration sent US troops to the Venezuelan capital of Caracas. Abduction of President Nicolás Maduro Saturday after a month of pressure.
which has been kidnapped Condemned as a violation of international lawIt comes amid Trump’s push to establish US hegemony in the Western Hemisphere in line with 19th-century US policy. The Monroe Doctrine.
Some experts say the US president’s plan to seize Greenland is consistent with that theory.
Asked about Washington’s stance on Greenland, Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that Trump is not the first US president to look at how to “collect” the territory. He also did not rule out the possibility of using military force.
“If the president identifies a threat to the national security of the United States, every president reserves the option to resolve it through military means,” Rubio said.
It remains unclear who exactly will meet with Rubio next week to discuss the situation.
But Greenland Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeld said on Tuesday that she and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen had requested a meeting with the US secretary of state.
“The purpose of this meeting is to reflect on important US statements on Greenland,” Motzfeldt wrote on social media.
Danish lawmaker Kemnitz told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the planned talks were an opportunity to resolve growing tensions over the US position.
“I think it’s important to focus on diplomacy,” she said. “This is a very strange situation for us and many of us are worried about everything that has happened.”
But Kemnitz stressed that discussions must be conducted respectfully. “We want respect,” she said. “For diplomacy, you also need respect.”