Copenhagen (AFP) – Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen denounced Tuesday a US delegation visit that now includes Vice President JD Vance to Greenland, the Danish island coveted by President Donald Trump, as putting “unacceptable pressure” on both the territory and her country. Vance, who has become Trump’s attack dog on foreign policy matters, will travel with his wife Usha to Pituffik Space Base on Friday “to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with US servicemembers,” his office said in a statement. The vice president had earlier said in a video message that there was “so much excitement” around his wife’s planned visit to Greenland that he had decided to join her.
According to the Arctic island’s outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede, US national security adviser Mike Waltz will also visit Greenland this week, while US media have reported that Energy Secretary Chris Wright will travel there as well. The visits, presented as private, have angered Danish and Greenlandic politicians. “You can’t organise a private visit with official representatives of another country,” Frederiksen told reporters. The visit comes at a time of political flux in Greenland, where parties are still negotiating to form a new coalition government following a March 11 general election. “This is clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants,” Frederiksen told broadcaster DR. “That’s why I have to say that the pressure being put on Greenland and Denmark in this situation is unacceptable. And it’s pressure we will resist.”
The outgoing Greenlandic government posted on Facebook that it had not “sent out any invitations for visits, private or official.” “The current government is a transitional government pending the formation of a new governing coalition, and we have asked all countries to respect this process,” it wrote. Since returning to power in January, Trump has insisted he wants to take over Greenland for national security purposes, refusing to rule out the use of force to do so. In his video message, Vance said other countries sought to use the territory to “threaten the United States, to threaten Canada, and, of course, to threaten the people of Greenland.” A self-governing territory that is seeking to emancipate itself from Copenhagen, Greenland holds massive untapped mineral and oil reserves, though oil and uranium exploration are banned. It is also strategically located between North America and Europe at a time of rising US, Chinese, and Russian interest in the Arctic, where sea lanes have opened up because of climate change. Greenland’s location also puts it on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the United States.
Greenland’s likely new prime minister — Jens-Frederik Nielsen of the centre-right Democrats, who won the election — has criticised Trump’s moves on Greenland as “inappropriate.” Aaja Chemnitz, a lawmaker representing Greenland in the Danish parliament, denounced the US delegation’s visit. “No one from the Greenlandic official system has invited the so-called tourists. They’re coming, using soft power diplomacy and also focusing on security issues, and this is totally unacceptable,” Chemnitz told AFP. Trump nonetheless alleged the visit was at the invitation of Greenland. “We’ve been invited,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “We’re dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to being properly protected and properly taken care of,” he said. Frederiksen meanwhile said Copenhagen and Nuuk were still open to cooperation with Washington. “We are allies, we have a defence agreement on Greenland that dates back to 1951,” Frederiksen said. “There is nothing that indicates, neither in Denmark nor Greenland, that we don’t want to cooperate with the Americans.”
© 2024 AFP
