“We fully recognise that Greenland has its own ambitions. If they materialise, Greenland will become independent, though hardly with an ambition to become a federal state in the United States,” Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said.
He told reporters the United States’ heightened security concerns in the Arctic were legitimate following increased Russian and Chinese activity in the region.
“I don’t think that we’re in a foreign policy crisis,” he said. “We are open to a dialogue with the Americans on how we can possibly cooperate even more closely than we do to ensure that the American ambitions are fulfilled.”
Still, although Denmark itself played down the seriousness of Trump’s threat to its territory, the returning president’s openly stated ambition to expand US borders has jolted European allies less than two weeks before he takes office.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, said Europe would not let other nations attack its sovereign borders, although he did not believe the US would invade.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed surprise at Trump’s comments about Greenland and Canada, underlining that European partners unanimously uphold the inviolability of borders.
