Denmark tells Trump to stop threatening to annex Greenland

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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called on US President Donald Trump and his allies to stop threatening to seize control of Greenland as tensions rise between NATO allies following the US intervention in Venezuela.

Trump said on Sunday “We need Greenland”And the wife of one of his closest aides posted on the social media platform

Frederiksen delivered his most significant rebuke of Trump and the US since his comments about the giant Arctic island in an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday evening.

She said: “Let me say this straight to the United States: There is absolutely no point in talking about the need for the US to annex Greenland… So I would strongly urge the US to stop threats against a historically close ally.”

His comments came after Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen described a map of the Danish territory posted by Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s deputy chief of staff and influential adviser Stephen Miller, as “offensive”.

Nielsen said the US rhetoric was “completely unacceptable” and added: “Enough. No more pressure. No more obfuscation. No more visions of annexation.”

Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela has been portrayed by him and senior US officials as part of a concept of “hemispheric defense” in which the US makes decisions throughout the Americas.

US officials have also included Greenland – which is geographically part of North America but territorially part of Denmark and NATO – into that concept.

Trump has insisted since last year that the US would take control of Greenland and has accused Denmark of neglecting its territory and Arctic security.

But Frederiksen said Sunday evening that the US “has no right to occupy any of the three countries” in the Kingdom of Denmark, which also includes the Faroe Islands.

He added the state “and thus Greenland is part of NATO and therefore falls under the alliance’s security guarantees”.

The Danish Prime Minister also pointed out that the US has a defense agreement with Copenhagen that gives it the right to build a military base on Greenland.

The US has significantly reduced its presence on Greenland in recent decades, from more than 10,000 troops currently to less than 200.

But Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, have claimed Denmark has failed to care for Greenland’s security, while Copenhagen has pledged to spend more than $4 billion in recent months on boosting it.

Denmark’s ambassador to the US, Jesper Møller Sorensen, responded to Miller’s social media post, saying: “We expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.”