COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s prime minister insisted that her country cannot negotiate on its sovereignty on Thursday (Jan 22) after US President Donald Trump said he agreed on a “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security with the head of NATO, and said she has been “informed that this has not been the case”.
Trump on Wednesday abruptly scrapped the tariffs he had threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for US control over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark. It was a dramatic reversal shortly after he insisted he wanted to get the island “including right, title and ownership”.
He said “additional discussions” on Greenland were being held concerning the Golden Dome missile defence program, a multilayered, US$175 billion system that for the first time will put US weapons in space. Trump offered few details, saying they were still being worked out.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement on Thursday that security in the Arctic is a matter for all of NATO, and it is “good and natural” that it be discussed between the US president and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. She said that she had spoken with Rutte “on an ongoing basis”, including before and after he met Trump in Davos.
She wrote that NATO is fully aware of the kingdom of Denmark’s position that anything political can be negotiated on, including security, investment and economic issues – “but we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty”.
“I have been informed that this has not been the case,” she said, adding that only Denmark and Greenland can make decisions on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland.
Frederiksen said that Denmark wants to continue engaging in constructive dialogue with allies on how to strengthen security in the Arctic, including the US Golden Dome program, “provided that this is done with respect for our territorial integrity”.
Asked in an interview with Fox News whether Greenland would remain part of the kingdom of Denmark under the framework deal Trump announced, Rutte replied that “that issue did not come up any more in my conversations tonight with the president”.
“He’s very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region, where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and Russians are more and more active, how we can protect it,” he said. “That was really the focus of our discussions.”