Washington has proposed all kinds of ways of taking over Greenland, which Donald Trump says is essential for security, clearly not trusting Europe to keep a handle on this itself.
The president on Sunday described buying the island as “easier,” but Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen responded angrily on Tuesday that “the mere talk of being able to buy another people is disrespectful.”
Not that Trump cares, having insisted that he will get his way “one way or the other”—or, more recently, “the easy way or the hard way.”
None of this bodes well for the fairly highly anticipated meeting taking place later today, Wednesday, between Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio last week said about the meeting that Washington would “prefer to settle [the issue] in different [that is, peaceful] ways,” but did not rule out a military intervention.
Resistance from Greenland suggests that this preference is likely to be difficult to see through. Other European leaders have expressed their opposition to Washington’s demands, though it is unclear what they will do—beyond talk—if action is taken.
Nielsen accepted on Tuesday that “we are faced with a geopolitical crisis,” and stressed that “Greenland will not be part of the U.S.A..”
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen rejected US President Donald Trump's push to take control of the island, declaring Greenland would rather remain part of Denmark amid rising geopolitical tensions https://t.co/NmZAdSgSHWpic.twitter.com/wXbgWdqiP9
Trump later described the Greenland leader’s desire for the island to remain an autonomous territory of Denmark as “their problem,” adding:
Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him.
There will no doubt be much to report following the meeting.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
