Danish leaders have sent private messages to President-elect Donald Trump’s team in recent days to quell his ambitions to take over Greenland, according to a new report.
Copenhagen accepts US military presence on autonomous island to strengthen security and appease President Donald Trump, who said “military coercion” could be used to bring Greenland under US rule. He is said to be open to doing so, a person familiar with the talks told Axios.
The Danish government, which is responsible for defending Greenland, wants to avoid conflict with the United States and wants to assure President Trump that Greenland will be safe from Russia and China without requiring U.S. annexation, officials said. added.
Copenhagen also called on Trump’s team to clarify the president-elect’s comments that shocked the world by suggesting the United States could invade the longtime North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally. Ta.
A European diplomat told Axios that Denmark is widely seen as America’s closest ally in the European Union, and no one could have imagined that Trump would be the first country to pick a fight. spoke.
Greenland has been a Danish colony since the 18th century, but became an autonomous Danish territory in 1953.
In 2009, the island won the right to secure independence through a referendum, a move supported by Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede.
However, Egede does not support Greenland’s annexation to the United States.
Mr. Egede told a news conference in Denmark on Friday that he was ready to discuss Greenland’s future with President Trump, but warned that the country’s people were not interested in becoming American.
“We are ready to talk,” he said. “Cooperation means dialogue. Cooperation means working towards solutions.”
The United States already has military bases on Greenland and has had a defense pact with the island since 1951, so adding more troops to the island would be easy.
Greenland’s strategic importance has grown exponentially in recent years as the ice-clogged Arctic waterways thaw and world powers compete for new real estate, with the United States and Russia among them.
This territory and its surrounding waters are rich in important minerals and natural resources.
