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As a bad-tempered meeting between Denmark, the US and Iceland draws to a close, Greenland has warned the American leader, saying: “you cannot own us”.
The prospect of the US acquiring Greenland is “absolutely not necessary,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said following the tense diplomatic gettogether, according to the BBC.
The Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers met with US Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio today to discuss the future of the Arctic island.
Rasmussen said it is clear the Trump has the wish of “conquering” Greenland, but that he believes the meeting has managed to “change the American position.” the Express reports.
“We made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of Greenland,” he added.
“Fundamental disagreement” remained following the “frank” White House talks over Greenland, the Danish foreign minister said.
Denmark has also said it will beef up its military presence in Greenland “from today”, in a statement made by the country’s defence ministry shortly before the talks were due to start in Washington DC.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt spoke to reporters at a joint news conference following their meeting with JD Vance and Marco Rubio.
Rasmussen told the assembled press that it is “absolutely not necessary” for US to acquire the Arctic territory, and that there is no “instant threat” from Russia.
President Trump threatened earlier this week that the US could annex Greenland within “weeks or months”. Thomas Dans, Mr Trump’s Arctic commissioner, said the President wants to move at “high speed” on the issue and that “things could move on an express basis”.
He told USA Today: “This is a train route with multiple stops. Things could move on an express basis, skip the local stops and go direct to the main station. That’s where President Trump wants to move it − at high speed.”
Meanwhile Greenland’s energy minister Naaja Nathanielsen told a press conference in Westminster yesterday Tuesday that US military action would represent “the breakdown of the rule of law” and leave Western allies having to “figure out what is this new world order about”.
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