‘We have to have it’: Trump renews push for Greenland as Denmark protests

US president cites nationalist information arsenic rationale for his efforts to instrumentality power of the self-governing Arctic island.

United States President Donald Trump has stepped up his campaign to get Greenland, declaring the Danish territory indispensable to Washington’s nationalist information and appointing a peculiar envoy helium said would “lead the charge”.

Trump’s comments connected Monday came arsenic the leaders of Denmark and Greenland protested against remarks by the caller envoy, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, who said helium would marque the Arctic territory “a portion of the US”.

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Speaking to reporters astatine his Mar-a-Lago nine successful Florida, Trump reiterated his presumption that Greenland is captious to US defence interests.

“We request Greenland for nationalist security, not for minerals,” the US president said. “If you instrumentality a look astatine Greenland, you look up and down the coast, you person Russian and Chinese ships each implicit the place… We person to person it.”

The remarks followed Trump’s Sunday announcement of Landry’s appointment, successful which helium praised the politician for knowing “how indispensable Greenland is to our nationalist security”.

Landry subsequently posted connected X that it was “an honour to serve… successful this unpaid presumption to marque Greenland a portion of the US”, adding that the relation would not impact his gubernatorial duties.

Landry’s connection drew a crisp rebuke from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s premier minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who issued a associated connection asserting that “Greenland belongs to Greenlanders”.

“You cannot annex different country. Not adjacent with an statement astir planetary security,” they said. “The US shall not instrumentality implicit Greenland.”

Nielson wrote separately connected Facebook that the US moves “may dependable big, but it does not alteration thing for us”. “We determine our ain future,” helium said.

Frederiksen added successful an Instagram post, “It is simply a hard concern that our allies for a beingness are putting america in.”

Earlier connected Monday, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Lokke Rasmussen said helium would summon US envoy Kenneth Howery to explicit his country’s heavy choler implicit Landry’s appointment. Rasmussen besides called the governor’s comments connected annexing Greenland “totally unacceptable”.

The Trump medication besides enactment further unit connected Copenhagen connected Monday, erstwhile it suspended leases for 5 ample offshore upwind projects being built disconnected the East Coast of the US, including 2 being developed by Denmark’s state-controlled Orsted.

The European Union, meanwhile, swiftly rallied down Denmark.

European Commission main Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa declared “full solidarity” with Copenhagen and emphasised that “territorial integrity and sovereignty are cardinal principles of planetary law”.

Since returning to the White House successful January, Trump has repeatedly declared that the US “needs” the resource-rich land and declined to regularisation retired the usage of subject unit to unafraid it. The self-governing territory, which lies betwixt Europe and North America, hosts a cardinal US ballistic rocket defence strategy and has important mineral deposits, which could trim US reliance connected Chinese exports.

According to an sentiment canvass conducted successful January, the immense bulk of Greenland’s 57,000 radical privation to go autarkic from Denmark, but they bash not privation to go portion of the US.