Danish prime minister to visit Greenland after JD Vance’s criticism

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Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen will visit 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 international minister, responded to the US vice-president’s uninvited visit to an American navy base in Greenland on Friday by saying Copenhagen was “open to criticism” however “we don’t respect the tone through which it’s being delivered — this isn’t the way you communicate to your shut allies”.

He added: “In 1945, the USA had 17 bases and navy installations in Greenland with 1000’s of troopers. At present, just one American base is left . . . and one thing like 200 troopers. We are able to do extra, far more, throughout the framework we’ve got immediately . . . Allow us to do it collectively.”

Donald Trump’s public need to take over Greenland from Denmark has positioned the way forward for the Arctic island and its 57,000 individuals within the geopolitical highlight.

Vance, along with US nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz and power secretary Chris Wright, visited the Pituffik House 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 finally need independence from Copenhagen.

Danish officers, who unveiled a $2bn defence bundle after conceding that they’d not invested sufficient within the island’s safety, initially took a cautious method to Trump’s expansionist claims. However up to now week they’ve grown extra assertive.

Rasmussen mentioned Vance had additionally admitted that the US had not invested sufficient within the Arctic. “The actual fact is, all of us have been harvesting the peace dividend. All of us acted on the belief that the Arctic was and needs to be a low-tension space. However that point is over. Established order shouldn’t be an possibility,” he mentioned.

Trump has argued that the US has fallen behind Russia and China in areas akin 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 “we’ve got to have” Greenland, refusing to rule out navy pressure.

On Friday Vance mentioned that he didn’t suppose “navy pressure is ever going to be obligatory”, partly as a result of he anticipated Greenlanders to select independence from Denmark and thereafter a better partnership with the US. The vice-president added that there have been threats from China and Russia to Greenland, however specialists mentioned the only real public menace had come from the US.

Denmark has despatched troops to battle 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 will have been worse,” one mentioned.

Frederiksen mentioned that Vance’s criticism was not “a good method to refer to Denmark”, which she known as “a great and robust ally” to the US.

Below 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 mentioned that they’d proposed a number of occasions in recent times for the US to enhance its navy 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 asserting his uninvited visit whereas the federal government formation talks have been nonetheless happening. Plenty of Danish ministers have mentioned they’ll quickly visit, now {that a} new authorities has been fashioned.