Denmark is ready to defend its values, Mette Frederiksen says, as Trump renews threats to seize the Danish territory.<\/p>\n
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said her country faces a \u201cdecisive moment\u201d over the future of Greenland after United States President Donald Trump renewed his threats to seize the Arctic territory by force.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of meetings in Washington, DC, from Monday on the global scramble for key raw materials, Frederiksen said that \u201cthere is a conflict over Greenland\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is a decisive moment\u201d, with stakes that go beyond the immediate issue of Greenland\u2019s future, Frederiksen said in a debate with other Danish political leaders.<\/p>\n
She added in a post on Facebook that Denmark was \u201d ready to defend our values \u2013 wherever it is necessary \u00a0\u2013 also in the Arctic\u201d. \u201cWe believe in international law and in peoples\u2019 right to self-determination,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Germany and Sweden backed Denmark against Trump\u2019s latest claims to the self-governing Danish territory.<\/p>\n
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned the US\u2019s \u201cthreatening rhetoric\u201d after Trump repeated that Washington was \u201cgoing to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries stand together with our Danish friends,\u201d Kristersson told a defence conference in Salen, in which the US general in charge of NATO took part.<\/p>\n
Kristersson said a US takeover of mineral-rich Greenland would be \u201ca violation of international law, and risks encouraging other countries to act in exactly the same way\u201d.<\/p>\n
Germany reiterated its support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of the Washington discussions.<\/p>\n
Before meeting his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, on Monday, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadehpul held talks in Iceland to address the \u201cstrategic challenges of the Far North\u201d, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity in the Arctic is becoming more and more important\u201d, and \u201cis part of our common interest in NATO\u201d, he said at a joint news conference with Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom\u2019s Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that military chiefs from the UK and other European countries were drawing up plans for a possible NATO mission in Greenland.<\/p>\n
The newspaper said that UK officials had begun early-stage talks with Germany, France and others on plans that could involve deploying UK troops, warships and aircraft to protect Greenland from Russia and China.<\/p>\n
UK Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander told Sky News that talks on how to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Arctic were \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s becoming an increasingly contested geopolitical region, with Russia and China\u2026 you would expect us to be talking to all our allies in NATO about what we can do to deter Russian aggression in the Arctic Circle,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Belgian Minister of Defence Theo Francken said that NATO should launch an operation in the Arctic to address US security concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to collaborate, work together and show strength and unity,\u201d\u00a0Francken\u00a0said, adding that there is a need for \u201ca NATO operation in the high north\u201d.<\/p>\n
Francken suggested NATO\u2019s Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry operations, which combine forces from different countries with drones, sensors and other technology to monitor land and sea, as possible models for an \u201cArctic Sentry\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump claims that controlling Greenland is crucial for US national security because of the rising Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic.<\/p>\n
A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.<\/p>\n
Polls\u00a0indicate\u00a0that Greenland\u2019s population strongly oppose a US takeover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denmark is ready to defend its values, Mette Frederiksen says, as Trump renews threats to seize the Danish…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":509962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[113,29062,69,440,8959,50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-509961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-conflict","9":"tag-denmark","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-nato","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115880082991342239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}