U.S. Vice President JD Vance, left, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio depart the Eisenhower Government Workplace Constructing on the White Home campus after a gathering with Danish Overseas Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland’s Overseas Minister Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington D.C, Jan. 14. AFP-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — A high Danish official stated Wednesday {that a} “elementary disagreement” over Greenland stays with President Donald Trump after extremely anticipated talks in Washington with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The 2 sides, nevertheless, agreed to create a working group to debate methods to work via variations as Trump continues to name for a U.S. takeover of the semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
“The group, in our view, ought to give attention to the right way to handle the American safety issues, whereas on the similar time respecting the pink traces of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Overseas Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen informed reporters after becoming a member of Greenland’s overseas minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, for the talks.
Trump is attempting to make the case that NATO ought to assist the U.S. purchase the world’s largest island and says something lower than it being beneath American management is unacceptable.
Denmark has introduced plans to spice up the nation’s army presence within the Arctic and North Atlantic as Trump tries to justify his requires a U.S. takeover of the huge territory by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their designs on Greenland.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark after the roughly hourlong assembly.
However just a few hours earlier than the officers sat down, Trump stated on his social media web site that the U.S. “wants Greenland for the aim of Nationwide Safety.” He added that “NATO must be main the best way for us to get it” and that in any other case Russia or China would — “AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!”
“NATO turns into much more formidable and efficient with Greenland within the arms of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Something lower than that’s unacceptable.”
Løkke Rasmussen informed reporters that it stays “clear that the president has this want of conquering over Greenland.”
“And we made it very, very clear that this isn’t within the curiosity of the dominion,” he stated after the assembly, citing a “elementary disagreement” with the Trump administration however prepared to maintain speaking.
Each Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt provided measured hope that the talks have been starting a dialog that may result in Trump dropping his demand of buying the territory and create a path for tighter cooperation with the U.S.
“We have now proven the place our limits are and from there, I feel that it will likely be excellent to look ahead,” Motzfeldt stated.
In Copenhagen, Danish Protection Minister Troels Lund Poulsen introduced a rise in Denmark’s “army presence and train exercise” within the Arctic and the North Atlantic, “in shut cooperation with our allies”.
Poulsen stated at a information convention the stepped-up army presence was needed in a safety setting by which “nobody can predict what is going to occur tomorrow.”
“Because of this from in the present day and within the coming time there will likely be an elevated army presence in and round Greenland of plane, ships and troopers, together with from different NATO allies,” Poulsen stated.
Different NATO allies have been arriving in Greenland together with Danish personnel, he stated. Poulsen declined to call the opposite nations contributing to elevated Arctic presence, saying that it’s as much as the allies to announce their very own participation.
Earlier, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X that “some officers from the Swedish Armed Forces are arriving in Greenland in the present day” as a part of a gaggle from a number of allied nations. “Collectively, they may put together occasions inside the framework of the Danish train Operation Arctic Endurance,” Kristersson stated. Two Norwegian army personnel additionally will likely be despatched to Greenland to map out additional cooperation with allies, the nation’s Protection Minister Tore O. Sandvik informed newspaper VG.
Greenland is strategically vital as a result of, as local weather change causes the ice to soften, it opens up the potential for shorter commerce routes to Asia. That additionally may make it simpler to extract and transport untapped deposits of crucial minerals that are wanted for computer systems and telephones.
Trump says Greenland can be “important” to the USA’ Golden Dome missile protection program. He additionally has stated he needs the island to increase America’s safety and has repeatedly cited what he says is the menace from Russian and Chinese language ships as a purpose to regulate it.
However consultants and Greenlanders query that declare, and it has turn into a sizzling subject on the snow-covered foremost avenue in Greenland’s capital, the place worldwide journalists and digital camera crews have descended as Trump continues his takeover discuss.
“The one Chinese language I see is after I go to the quick meals market,” heating engineer Lars Vintner stated. He stated he ceaselessly goes crusing and searching and has by no means seen Russian or Chinese language ships.
His good friend, Hans Nørgaard, agreed, including “what has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump about all these ships is simply fantasy.”
Denmark has stated the U.S., which already has a army presence, can increase its bases on Greenland. The U.S. is social gathering to a 1951 treaty that offers it broad rights to arrange army bases there with the consent of Denmark and Greenland.
For that purpose, “safety is only a cowl,” Vintner stated, suggesting Trump really needs to personal the island to make cash from its untapped pure sources.
Mikaelsen, the coed, stated Greenlanders profit from being a part of Denmark, which supplies free well being care, schooling and funds throughout research, and “I don’t need the U.S. to take that away from us.”
Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, together with Denmark’s ambassador to the U.S., deliberate to fulfill later Wednesday with senators from the Arctic Caucus. A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers can be heading to Copenhagen this week to see Danish and Greenlandic officers.
Each Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt stated whereas they continue to be at loggerheads with Trump, but it surely stays crucial to maintain speaking.
“It’s in everyone’s curiosity — though we disagree — that we conform to attempt to discover whether or not it’s doable to accommodate among the issues whereas on the similar time respecting the integrity of the Danish kingdom’s territory and the self-determination of the Greenlandic folks,” Løkke Rasmussen stated.
