Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen delivered a firm rebuke to the United States during her visit to Greenland on Thursday, saying “you cannot annex another country” amid renewed American interest in acquiring the Arctic territory.
According to a Guardian report, speaking from the Danish navy inspection ship Vaedderen alongside Greenland’s new Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and outgoing leader Múte B Egede, Frederiksen addressed the diplomatic standoff directly.
“This is about the world order that we have built together across the Atlantic over generations,” Frederiksen said, switching from Danish to English. “You cannot annex another country – not even with an argument about international security”.
Her comments followed reports that the White House budget office is assessing the cost of running Greenland and calculating potential revenue from its natural resources, according to the Washington Post.
The Danish leader accused the United States of subjecting Denmark and Greenland to “pressure and threats” and questioned: “What should we believe about the country we have admired for many years?”
Frederiksen offered cooperation as an alternative approach, stating: “If you want to be more present in Greenland, Greenland and Denmark are ready. If you want to strengthen security in the Arctic, as we would like, let’s do it together”.
Nielsen, Greenland’s newly elected leader, emphasised the importance of respectful dialogue, while Egede reiterated his previous stance that “we are not for sale”.
The visit comes after U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s controversial trip to Greenland last week, which was limited to the U.S. military base Pituffik and did not include meetings with Greenlandic or Danish representatives.
In Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who later told reporters he had stated that “these repeated statements from the U.S. president with a vision or ambition to control Greenland are in no way sustainable.”
Greenland, a former Danish colony, remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark, which controls the territory’s foreign and security policies. While the island has a growing independence movement, the threat of U.S. intervention appears to have tempered immediate calls for separation.
A coalition agreement signed by four parties led by Nielsen’s Democrats, just hours before Vance’s arrival last Friday, explicitly stated: “Greenland belongs to us”.
One option reportedly being considered by the U.S. administration is to offer Greenland approximately £500 million annually in subsidies, exceeding Denmark’s current support.
(information from The Guardian)
