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Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen will go to Greenland subsequent week and meet the island’s newly appointed chief Jens-Frederik Nielsen after US vice-president JD Vance claimed Denmark was neglecting the autonomous territory.
Danish officers on Saturday pushed again in opposition to the US criticism, saying America had uncared for Greenland’s safety by considerably scaling again its army presence within the Arctic.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s overseas minister, responded to the US vice-president’s uninvited go to to an American army base in Greenland on Friday by saying Copenhagen was “open to criticism” however “we don’t recognize the tone during which it’s being delivered — this isn’t the way you communicate to your shut allies”.
He added: “In 1945, the US had 17 bases and army installations in Greenland with 1000’s of troopers. At this time, just one American base is left . . . and one thing like 200 troopers. We are able to do extra, rather more, throughout the framework now we have at the moment . . . Allow us to do it collectively.”
Donald Trump’s public want to take over Greenland from Denmark has positioned the way forward for the Arctic island and its 57,000 individuals in the geopolitical highlight.
Vance, along with US nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz and vitality secretary Chris Wright, visited the Pituffik Area Base and accused Denmark of not doing “a great job by the individuals of Greenland”.
Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory within the kingdom of Denmark however a majority of its inhabitants ultimately need independence from Copenhagen.
Danish officers, who unveiled a $2bn defence package deal after conceding that they’d not invested sufficient within the island’s safety, initially took a cautious strategy to Trump’s expansionist claims. However prior to now week they’ve grown extra assertive.
Rasmussen stated Vance had additionally admitted that the US had not invested sufficient within the Arctic. “The very fact is, all of us have been harvesting the peace dividend. All of us acted on the idea that the Arctic was and ought to be a low-tension space. However that point is over. Establishment shouldn’t be an choice,” he stated.
Trump has argued that the US has fallen behind Russia and China in areas corresponding to icebreakers as its two greatest geopolitical rivals gear up for a melting of the ice within the far north.
However Danish and Greenlandic officers have been horrified by his rhetoric that “now we have to have” Greenland, refusing to rule out army pressure.
On Friday Vance stated that he didn’t assume “army pressure is ever going to be obligatory”, partly as a result of he anticipated Greenlanders to decide on independence from Denmark and thereafter a more in-depth partnership with the US. The vice-president added that there have been threats from China and Russia to Greenland, however specialists stated the only real public risk had come from the US.
Denmark has despatched troops to struggle alongside US troopers in Afghanistan and Iraq and its officers have been dismayed by the criticism from their closest safety ally. However they have been additionally relieved that Vance didn’t escalate issues. “I believed it could have been worse,” one stated.
Frederiksen stated that Vance’s criticism was not “a good approach to seek advice from Denmark”, which she known as “a great and powerful ally” to the US.
Beneath a wide-ranging defence settlement from 1951, the US is allowed to arrange army bases throughout Greenland so long as it doesn’t impinge on Denmark’s sovereignty.
Greenlandic and Danish officers stated that they’d proposed a number of instances lately for the US to extend its army footprint however America has as an alternative scaled again its presence.
Greenland unveiled a brand new, broad authorities coalition on Friday. Nielsen has criticised Vance for a scarcity of respect by saying his uninvited go to whereas the federal government formation talks have been nonetheless happening. Plenty of Danish ministers have stated they’ll quickly go to, now {that a} new authorities has been shaped.
