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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 towards the US criticism, saying America had uncared for Greenland’s safety by considerably scaling again its navy presence within the Arctic.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s overseas minister, responded to the US vice-president’s uninvited go to to an American navy base in Greenland on Friday by saying Copenhagen was “open to criticism” however “we don’t admire the tone by 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 navy installations in Greenland with hundreds of troopers. Right now, just one American base is left . . . and one thing like 200 troopers. We will do extra, way more, throughout the framework now we have at present . . . 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 folks in the geopolitical highlight.
Vance, along with US nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz and vitality secretary Chris Wright, visited the Pituffik House Base and accused Denmark of not doing “a superb job by the folks 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 method 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 needs to be a low-tension space. However that point is over. Establishment will not be an possibility,” he stated.
Trump has argued that the US has fallen behind Russia and China in areas corresponding to icebreakers as its two largest 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 navy power.
On Friday Vance stated that he didn’t suppose “navy power is ever going to be obligatory”, partially 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 consultants 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 assumed it could have been worse,” one stated.
Frederiksen stated that Vance’s criticism was not “a good solution to consult with Denmark”, which she known as “a superb and robust ally” to the US.
Beneath a wide-ranging defence settlement from 1951, the US is allowed to arrange navy 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 occasions lately for the US to extend its navy footprint however America has as a substitute scaled again its presence.
Greenland unveiled a brand new, broad authorities coalition on Friday. Nielsen has criticised Vance for a scarcity of respect by asserting his uninvited go to whereas the federal government formation talks have been nonetheless going down. Quite a lot of Danish ministers have stated they may quickly go to, now {that a} new authorities has been fashioned.
