Richard Sanders<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Donald Trump\u2019s repeated promises to annex Greenland are not appropriate for a close ally and overall are \u201cescalating tensions,\u201d<\/em> Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we\u2019ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland, and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark,\u201d<\/em> Trump told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have to have the land because it\u2019s not possible to properly defend a large section of this Earth \u2013 not just the US \u2013 without it. So we have to have it, and I think we will have it,\u201d<\/em> he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking to Danish state broadcaster DR on Thursday, Poulsen condemned Trump\u2019s recent remarks as escalatory and disrespectful. Trump\u2019s rhetoric was becoming increasingly aggressive and amounted to a \u201chidden threat\u201d<\/em> against Denmark and its semi-autonomous territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think they are going too far \u2013 both in interfering in Greenland\u2019s internal affairs and in showing a lack of respect for its people\u2019s right to decide their future,\u201d<\/em> Lund stated, responding to Trump\u2019s latest remarks on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese very powerful statements about a close ally do not suit the US president,\u201d<\/em> he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past few months, Trump repeatedly invoked the topic of Greenland, insisting that Washington needed to take control of the island to enhance its \u201cnational security.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The ramped-up rhetoric comes against the backdrop of a visit of a high-profile US delegation to the island led by Usha Vance, wife of US Vice President JD Vance, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. JD Vance is expected to join his wife on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The visit has been criticized by both Danish and Greenlandic authorities, with the semi-autonomous territory\u2019s acting head of government, Mute Egede, who branded it a \u201cprovocation\u201d<\/em> and refused to meet the US delegation. Denmark\u2019s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has also condemned the trip, accusing the US of exerting \u201cunacceptable pressure.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have to say that it is unacceptable pressure being placed on Greenland and Denmark in this situation. And it is pressure that we will resist,\u201d<\/em> she told DR and TV2 broadcasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the former Danish colony of some 57,000 has a strong pro-independence movement, a poll commissioned by the Sermitsiaq daily in late January suggested that 85% of Greenlanders opposed any incorporation into the US, while only 6% backed it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Richard Sanders US President Donald Trump\u2019s repeated promises to annex Greenland are not appropriate for a close ally and overall are \u201cescalating tensions,\u201d Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland, and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark,\u201d Trump told reporters…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1620,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions\/1620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}