Danish Leader Rallies European Support in Greenland Standoff
(Bloomberg) -- Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sought to drum up support from European allies to stand up to Donald Trump’s efforts to appropriate Greenland, as she tried to project unity while avoiding antagonizing the US president.
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On Tuesday, the 47-year-old visited German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris before traveling to Brussels to meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The tour of major capitals comes on the heels of a viral photo of Frederiksen sitting down for a meal with the leaders of Finland, Sweden and Norway over the weekend.
Alongside the demonstrations of solidarity, Denmark has underscored its ties with Greenland by injecting 14.6 billion kroner ($2 billion) into boosting defense capabilities on the mineral-rich Arctic island — part of a broader initiative to step up patrols in the North Atlantic.
Despite near daily pressure from the White House, Denmark’s strategy is to avoid escalation by not publicly engaging with Trump’s threats, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not be named talking about private discussions. The country has asked European allies to do the same, the people said.
In line with the approach, Frederiksen and Scholz notably sidestepped any direct mention of the Greenland crisis in their statements to reporters ahead of talks in Berlin. The closest they got was a thinly veiled reference to resisting territorial expansion.
Without mentioning Trump or Greenland, Scholz said that the inviolability of borders is a fundamental principle of international law that must be respected. “The principle must apply — to everyone,” he said, adding: “I also made this clear here a few days ago: Borders must not be moved by force, to whom it may concern.”
After her meeting in Paris with Macron, Frederiksen said she discussed “many different things” with her German and French counterparts, including the Danish kingdom. Speaking to Danish broadcasters, she declined to go into details, but confirmed that the current situation with the US over Greenland was one of her reasons for meeting European leaders.
“Broadly, there is very, very great support for Denmark in this situation,” she said. Macron didn’t speak to the press.
Asked whether the conversations could be used the next time she speaks with Trump, Frederiksen said: “I can use everything we are doing right now. Otherwise I would not be doing it.”
“Everything we are doing is of course to put not only Denmark and the kingdom in the best possible position, but also Europe,” she said. “The very clear message — from the Nordics to Europe, but also friends outside Europe — is that there must of course be respect for the territory and sovereignty of states.”
Trump has underscored his fixation with Greenland — which harkens back to his first term. He insists he wants to take over the world’s largest island for security reasons and has refused to rule out using force.
After arriving in Brussels, Frederiksen dismissed concerns about a US attack, telling Danish media: “I have no reason to believe there is a military threat to Greenland or Denmark.”
Trump’s pursuit of Greenland has become an all-consuming issue on the Danish political agenda, putting the government in crisis mode and tying up Frederiksen and other senior officials with emergency meetings and negotiations aimed at repairing the increasingly strained ties to the new US administration.
The Danish premier hasn’t held such frequent press briefings and media appearances since the Covid-19 pandemic. She’s also had talks with top business executives and party leaders, amid Trump’s threats to levy punitive tariffs on the Nordic nation of just under 6 million people.
“Trump shouldn’t have Greenland,” Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s foreign minister, told local media in Copenhagen on Tuesday. “Greenland is Greenland. The Greenlandic people are a people also in the sense of international law,” and they ultimately determine their situation.
While Frederiksen has largely garnered broad backing in Denmark for her cautious approach toward Trump, some opposition parties have criticized her rhetoric as too weak and argued it’s pushing Greenland closer to the US.
The US president has mocked Copenhagen’s ability to defend the island, which has extensive home rule but no military of its own and is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
The US has had an airbase on Greenland since the end of World War II and has the right to increase its military presence there as long as it consults and informs both Denmark and Greenland.
Denmark’s not alone in facing Trump’s rankling. He’s taken aim at Canada, Panama and, most recently, Colombia to get what he wants. Chrystia Freeland, a candidate for Canadian prime minister, has called for a summit of leaders from Mexico, Denmark, Panama and the European Union to coordinate a response.
Frederiksen’s meetings in Berlin, Paris and Brussels on Tuesday are part of a broader push to drum up support. On Sunday, she huddled with her Nordic peers over dinner at her house, where Greenland was on the agenda.
To bolster the island’s defenses, funds for the new warships will come from Denmark’s existing budget, which was increased after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said last week that Denmark — one of the founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — may have to spend more than $70 billion on its military through 2033. The government and most of the opposition parties have agreed to open talks later in 2025 on a second Arctic military package, the ministry said.
The threat of possible military action is on the EU’s agenda. When asked about Greenland, Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said: “We are ready to defend our member state Denmark.”
--With assistance from Alberto Nardelli, Samy Adghirni, Christian Wienberg, Frances Schwartzkopff and Gian Volpicelli.
(Adds Frederiksen comment from Brussels in 12th paragraph)
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