Danish prime minister heads to Greenland as Trump seeks control of the
Arctic territory
[April 02, 2025]
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Danish Prime Minister Mette
Frederiksen is traveling to Greenland on Wednesday for a three-day trip
aimed at building trust and cooperation with Greenlandic officials at a
time when the Trump administration is seeking control of the vast Arctic
territory.
Frederiksen announced plans for her visit after U.S. Vice President JD
Vance visited a U.S. air base in Greenland last week and accused Denmark
of underinvesting in the territory.
Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that is
becoming more accessible because of climate change. Trump has said that
the landmass is critical to U.S. security. It's geographically part of
North America, but is a semiautonomous territory belonging to the
Kingdom of Denmark.
Frederiksen is due to meet the incoming Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik
Nielsen, after an election last month that produced a new government.
She is also to meet with the future Naalakkersuisut, the Cabinet, in a
visit due to last through Friday.
“It has my deepest respect how the Greenlandic people and the
Greenlandic politicians handle the great pressure that is on Greenland,"
she said in government statement announcing the visit.
On the agenda are talks with Nielsen about cooperation between Greenland
and Denmark.
Nielsen has said in recent days that he welcomes the visit, and that
Greenland would resist any U.S. attempt to annex the territory.
“We must listen when others talk about us. But we must not be shaken.
President Trump says the United States is ‘getting Greenland.’ Let me
make this clear: The U.S. is not getting that. We don’t belong to anyone
else. We decide our own future,” he wrote Sunday on Facebook.
[to top of second column]
|
Netherland's Prime Minister Dick Schoof, right, and Denmark's Prime
Minister Mette Frederiksen arrive for a round table meeting at an EU
summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool
Photo via AP)
“We must not act out of fear. We must respond with peace, dignity
and unity. And it is through these values that we must clearly,
clearly and calmly show the American president that Greenland is
ours.”
For years, the people of Greenland, with a population of about
57,000, have been working toward eventual independence from Denmark.
The Trump administration's threats to take control of the island one
way or the other, possibly even with military force, have angered
many in Greenland and Denmark. The incoming government wants to take
a slower approach on the question of eventual independence.
The political group in Greenland most sympathetic to the U.S.
president, the Naleraq party that advocates a swift path toward
independence, was excluded from coalition talks to form the next
government.
Peter Viggo Jakobsen, associate professor at the Danish Defense
Academy, said last week that the Trump administration’s aspirations
for Greenland could backfire and push the more mild parties closer
to Denmark.
He said that “Trump has scared most Greenlanders away from this idea
about a close relationship to the United States because they don’t
trust him.”
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
