Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen expresses optimism that high-level talks between Denmark, the US, and Greenland will peacefully resolve security concerns.
ROVANIEMI: Denmark’s prime minister said Monday she was “optimistic” that discussions launched between Denmark, the United States and Greenland after the US threatened to take over the territory could resolve the dispute.
US President Donald Trump insisted earlier this year that Washington needed to control Greenland — an autonomous Danish territory — for national security reasons, though he ultimately ruled out annexing it by force.
A “high-level working group”, gathering representatives from Denmark, the United States and Greenland was created in January to address US concerns, but since its creation little information about the negotiations has emerged.
“This working group is still working and therefore it’s too early to draw any conclusions but I’m quite optimistic that we can find a way,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a summit on Arctic security in northern Finland.
“As long as the working group is still working, there are no conclusions, but my hope is, of course, that we will find a way forward peacefully,” Frederiksen told reporters in Rovaniemi.
The United States wants to open three new military bases in southern Greenland, according to several media outlets, in addition to the Pituffik base it already has in the north of the territory.
A 1951 defence pact, updated in 2004, already allows Washington to ramp up troop deployments and military installations on the island provided it informs Denmark and Greenland in advance.
At the height of the crisis, Trump would not rule out using force to seize the territory of 57,000 inhabitants, sowing anxiety within the EU and NATO.
Since then, tensions have cooled somewhat, and in an apparent move to assuage Trump, NATO launched a new mission to bolster security in the Arctic.
“When I became prime minister in Denmark, the Arctic region was not really on the agenda in the European Union, neither in NATO,” Frederiksen said.
“Now, as we speak, we have 10 allies exercising together in Greenland.”
