Denmark’s international minister has chided United States President Donald Trump’s administration for its “tone” in criticising Denmark over its function in Greenland, saying his nation is already investing extra into Arctic safety and stays open to additional cooperation with the US.
Overseas Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen made the sharp remarks in a video posted to social media on Saturday, after US Vice President JD Vance’s go to to the strategic island.
“Many accusations and lots of allegations have been made. And naturally we’re open to criticism,” Rasmussen stated, talking in English.
“However let me be fully trustworthy: we don’t recognize the tone through which it’s being delivered. This isn’t the way you communicate to your shut allies. And I nonetheless contemplate Denmark and the USA to be shut allies.”
On Friday, Vance, on a fleeting go to, accused Denmark of failing to maintain Greenland protected and projected that the US would higher shield the semi-autonomous Danish territory that Trump covets and has pressed to take over.
“Our message to Denmark may be very easy: You haven’t completed a superb job by the folks of Greenland,” Vance stated on Friday. “You will have underinvested within the folks of Greenland, and you’ve got underinvested within the safety structure of this unbelievable, lovely landmass crammed with unbelievable folks. That has to alter.”
The US has advised that each Russia and China have strategic designs on Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen additionally pushed again on Vance’s declare that Denmark shouldn’t be doing sufficient for defence within the Arctic, calling her nation “a superb and powerful ally”.
“For a few years, we’ve got stood by the Individuals in very tough conditions,” she stated, referring to Danish fight deployments alongside US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the place dozens of Danes had been killed.
“The Vice President’s reference to Denmark shouldn’t be correct,” she added.
Frederiksen will go to Greenland on April 2-4 for talks with the semi-autonomous territory’s new authorities, she stated on Saturday.
Vance was accompanied by his spouse Usha, Nationwide Safety Advisor Mike Waltz and his spouse, Vitality Secretary Chris Wright, Utah Senator Mike Lee and former Homeland Safety Advisor Julia Nesheiwat, who’s Waltz’s spouse.
The vice chairman pressured that the US has “no possibility” however to take a big place to make sure the safety of the island as he inspired a push in Greenland for independence from Denmark.
“I feel that they in the end will companion with the USA,” Vance stated. “We might make them rather more safe. We might do much more safety. And I feel they’d fare quite a bit higher economically as nicely.”
Greenland has its say
The response by members of Greenland’s parliament and its residents to Trump’s push to annex the island has been a livid one.
Greenlandic legislators on Thursday agreed to kind a brand new authorities, banding collectively to withstand Trump’s overtures. 4 of the 5 events elected to Greenland’s parliament earlier this month have agreed to kind a coalition that can have 23 of 31 seats within the legislature.
Incoming Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen informed a information convention on Friday that the territory wanted unity presently.
“It is rather vital that we put apart our disagreements and variations … as a result of solely on this approach will we be capable to deal with the heavy strain we’re uncovered to from exterior,” he stated.
The Danish international minister, in his remarks, was at pains to notice that his nation has elevated its personal funding into Arctic defence.
In January, Denmark introduced 14.6 billion Danish kroner ($2.1bn) in monetary commitments for Arctic safety protecting three new naval vessels, long-range drones and satellites.
1951 US-Denmark defence settlement
In his video, Rasmussen additionally cited the 1951 defence settlement between Denmark and the US. Since 1945, the US army presence in Greenland has decreased from 1000’s of troopers over 17 bases and installations on the island, he stated, to the distant Pituffik House Base within the northwest with some 200 troopers.
The 1951 settlement “gives ample alternative for the USA to have a a lot stronger army presence in Greenland”, the international minister stated. “If that’s what you want, then allow us to focus on it.”
A whole lot of protesters demonstrated on Saturday exterior the US embassy within the Danish capital Copenhagen, with some lifting indicators saying “again off, USA,” Danish broadcaster TV2 reported.
Trump argues that the US wants the huge Arctic island for nationwide and worldwide safety and has not dominated out using drive to safe it.
“We’re not speaking about peace for the USA. We’re speaking about world peace. We’re speaking about worldwide safety,” Trump claimed to reporters on the White Home on Friday.
Requested in regards to the potential use of drive to annex the territory, Vance pressured the US administration didn’t assume that “is ever going to be essential”.
