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US President Donald Trump is using the same language on Greenland as he is describing Russia and China as “gangsters” who should try to control them, the former NATO chief has said.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is also a former prime minister of Denmark, told the FT that Trump was using Greenland “as a weapon of mass distraction from the real threats”, such as Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Rasmussen, who sent Danish troops to fight alongside the US in Afghanistan, said, “For me, this has been a painful process. Since childhood, I have thought of the United States as the natural leader of the free world. I have also talked about America as the world’s policeman.”
“Now we see that the United States uses a language that is much closer to the gangsters they are supposed to control in Moscow, Beijing, etc.”
His comments came as thousands of people gathered in at least 10 Danish and Greenlandic towns and cities in support of the Arctic island and in protest against US rhetoric.
Trump has shocked Europe with his aggressive comments about NATO ally Denmark, insisting he must take control of Greenland from Copenhagen and saying he could use military force to do so.
Denmark, Greenland and the US decided this week to set up a high-level working group to discuss whether a deal is possible on the future of the vast Arctic island.
But there was almost immediate controversy over its scope, with the White House saying the group would hold “technical negotiations on the acquisition of Greenland”, while Denmark insisted that its “red line” was that Greenland was not for sale.
Rasmussen, who was prime minister of Denmark from 2001 to 2009 and then head of NATO for five years, said Trump was familiar with distraction tactics.
“I’m really concerned that the world’s attention is now focused on something that is a threat to neither Europe nor the United States – namely Greenland, a friendly ally of the United States – rather than focusing on what should be the focal point right now: namely, how do we force Putin to the negotiating table in Ukraine?”
He said: “The division in the West is in Russian hands. I’m sure Moscow hopes that Greenland will become the iceberg that sinks NATO. So it goes ahead with Denmark and Greenland… Conquering Greenland would be the end of the world order as we know it.”
The former NATO Secretary General suggested that Denmark should present three concrete proposals to Trump.
The 1951 defense agreement that gives the U.S. major dominion over Greenland should be “updated and modernized” to reflect where Washington and NATO can and should establish more military bases, he said.
The US currently has the only military base in Greenland, with about 150 troops, but during the Cold War it had 17 installations and more than 10,000 troops on the island.
Rasmussen said Denmark should also sign an investment agreement to attract more US money into critical minerals in Greenland, as well as a stability and resilience agreement “to curb Russian and Chinese influence.”
