Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has returned to New Hampshire after a North Atlantic Treaty Organization observer trip to Denmark, where she met with Danish and Greenlandic leaders.
Shaheen said the Trump administration’s reported interest in taking over Greenland has prompted strong reactions abroad.
“What we heard from the Danes, what we heard from the Greenlandic officials that we talked to, was a real sense of betrayal by the United States,” she said.
Shaheen said Denmark has been one of America’s most committed NATO allies.
“Their soldiers have fought alongside ours in World Wars I and II in Afghanistan. They lost on a percentage basis as many soldiers in Afghanistan fighting with us as the United States did,” she said.
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NATO allies are now concerned about potential U.S. actions regarding Greenland.
“Any decision about the future status of Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone. That right is fundamental and we support it,” said Keir Starmer, prime minister of the United Kingdom.
“We don’t want to be Americans. We are Greenlanders, and we want to be in a democratic world, and we hope Americans they will support us,” said Julie Rademacher, a Danish politician.
Shaheen said it’s important to recognize which global powers are rooting for tensions to escalate.
“The only people who are celebrating what President Trump is doing are Vladimir Putin and Russia and President Xi in China, because they would love to see the NATO alliance and the transatlantic alliance, our partners with Europe, fall apart, and that’s what the president is threatening,” she said.