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Denmark has vowed to defend “every inch” of its territory after US president Donald Trump renewed his threats to take over Greenland at the start of the Nato summit in Ankara on Tuesday.
The US leader has long threatened the semi-autonomous territory that is governed by Denmark, sparking a diplomatic row with Europe and Nato earlier this year.
On Tuesday, he insisted Greenland “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark” and threatened to withdraw troops from Europe if his plans were not put into action. The next day, he reiterated his frustration by saying he is “not happy” with Nato over Greenland and that the territory has become a “big problem” for the US.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has hit back at the fresh threats and said the territory is “not for sale”.
“Our position is clear as it has been all through. Greenland is, of course, not for sale,” Mr Frederiksen told reporters.
“We hope that all, including all allies, will respect the Greenlandic people’s right for self-determination and we are a sovereign state, and we need everybody to respect our territorial integrity and our sovereignty.”
Asked whether Denmark would defend Greenland in the event of an invasion, she said: “We are ready to defend every inch of Nato, including our own territory.”
She added: “One of the reasons why we built Nato many, many years ago is if anything happens to one of us, then everybody should stand up for each other.”
Mr Trump is at the Nato summit this week meeting with world leaders to discuss defence spending, and revealed that he had considered skipping the event altogether.
During a press conference with reporters, he sat with host and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and said: “Denmark doesn’t spend money to really help Greenland, but it’s an important part for the United States, and it’s surrounded by China ships and Russian ships, and that’s not going to happen.”
He argued it “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark” and added: “When they wouldn’t go along with it, and with all the money we spend to help them with Russia, and we don’t have to spend any money, we could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe because, as you probably noticed, Europe’s a very different place than it was 20 years ago, lot different, much different, much different, and they better be careful with immigration and energy.
“If they’re not careful with those two things, you’re not going to have a Europe anymore.”
According to Reuters, Frederiksen added: “It is a well-known position of the United States that it wants to own and take over Greenland. I hope that it is equally well known everywhere that this is not going to happen.”
Trump had backtracked on plans to take over Greenland after the intervention of several European leaders following his threat to impose tariffs across Europe.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said in January that American and Nato representatives had “formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region” after discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
On Wednesday, Nato chief Mark Rutte said that the Greenland deal agreed with the US would be implemented “step by step”.
