“We still have fundamental disagreements,” was the blunt summary offered by Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of the conversation held Wednesday at the White House alongside Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to discuss the future of the vast island, which Donald Trump has announced he intends to annex at all costs.
At a press conference at the Danish Embassy in Washington, following the conclusion of the hour-and-a-half meeting, Rasmussen acknowledged that Copenhagen shares Washington’s concerns regarding Arctic security, the argument Trump is using to justify his claim to the island. However, he also dismissed the Republican’s argument that Russian and Chinese warships are surrounding Greenland and that both countries are vying for control. “Our intelligence indicates that no Chinese warship has been detected in nearby waters for a decade,” Rasmussen noted.
Both ministers expressed Denmark and Greenland’s willingness to cooperate with the United States in strengthening the island’s security, but rejected the possibility of annexation. “We are open to cooperation. That doesn’t mean we want to be owned by the United States,” Motzfeldt insisted. “We are always ready to do more,” Rasmussen noted, adding that in Copenhagen’s view, it is apparent that Trump wants to “conquer” Greenland. “We made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of Greenland.”
Immediately before the meeting, the government in Copenhagen announced an increased military presence in Greenland starting Wednesday and an extension of the military exercises it had been conducting around the island, in coordination with NATO. “The objective is to train the capacity to operate in the unique Arctic conditions and to strengthen the Alliance’s presence in the area, which will benefit the security of both Europe and the transatlantic region,” the Danish Ministry of Defense stated in a press release. “This will result in a greater military presence in and around Greenland, including aircraft, warships, and troops, also from other NATO member countries.”
The U.S. president had been warming up just hours before the meeting, posting two messages on his social media platform, Truth, calling on NATO to side with him and pressure Copenhagen to cede Greenlandic sovereignty. Any other option is “unacceptable,” Trump wrote regarding his intentions.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States,” he asserted in one of his messages. In another, he appealed directly to the Alliance. “NATO: Tell Denmark to get them out of there now! Two dogsleds won’t do it!”
Trump believes that possessing the gigantic Arctic island — abundant in mineral resources — is essential for reasons of “national security,” although European authorities and numerous experts have pointed out that Washington already has the doors wide open to establish as many bases and military forces as it wishes in the territory, controlled by a NATO member state, without needing to annex it.
Greenland holds the key to accessing the Arctic, at a time when global warming is making navigation through polar waters increasingly possible.
The island also lies along one of the likely missile trajectories in the event of a confrontation between Russia and the United States. It would play a crucial role in the deployment of the “Golden Dome,” the massive missile defense system with an initial budget of $175 billion that the Republican leader has ordered to be rapidly developed to protect all of U.S. territory, which he aims to have ready by 2028.
According to Trump, only the United States can guarantee the island’s security and prevent Russia or China — whose presence in the Arctic has been increasing as the melting ice has facilitated transit — from taking it over.
Washington already has a military base in Greenland, the Pituffik Space Base, built in 1943 and where some 150 U.S. soldiers are stationed. During the height of the Cold War, the U.S. had as many as 6,000 troops deployed on the island, in bases that were gradually closed as tensions with the Soviet Union eased. A 1951 treaty with Copenhagen grants the United States the right to reestablish bases or send as many troops as it wishes to the island.
Trump has responded to these arguments by saying: “When we own it, we defend it. You don’t defend leases the same way, you have to own it,” he insisted. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
NATO countries have begun to develop a strategy to try to strengthen Greenland’s security in response to the U.S. president’s statements. German Foreign Minister Johan Wadepuhl also visited Washington to meet with Rubio last Monday and discuss, among other things, the situation in the Arctic territory. At the end of the meeting, he expressed optimism about future U.S. participation in an Alliance mission “for the security of the island.”
“NATO has begun working on concrete plans that will be discussed with our American partners,” the German representative noted. “We were unable to do so this Monday. But all parties are willing to achieve this within the NATO framework. Germany will also contribute,” he stated.
The possibility of a move that could dismantle NATO and, with it, the security structure that has protected both sides of the Atlantic for the past 80 years is a prospect that is also causing concern within the U.S. Congress, where several lawmakers are preparing bills to prohibit Trump from taking any action regarding Greenland without express authorization from Capitol Hill. A delegation of lawmakers from both parties is scheduled to travel to Copenhagen later this week to meet with Danish members of parliament.
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