US attack
on Greenland would mean end of Nato, says Danish PM
Mette
Frederiksen criticises Donald Trump’s ‘unacceptable pressure’ as Greenland
counterpart condemns ‘fantasies’
Miranda
Bryant Nordic correspondent
Mon 5 Jan
2026 17.23 GMT
An attack
by the United States on a Nato ally would mean the end of both the military
alliance and “post-second world war security”, Denmark’s leader has warned,
after Donald Trump threatened again to take over Greenland.
Fresh
from his military operation in Venezuela, the US president said on Sunday the
US needed Greenland “very badly” – renewing fears of a US invasion of the
largely autonomous island, which is a former Danish colony and remains part of
the Danish kingdom. Greenland’s foreign and security policy continues to be
controlled by Copenhagen.
Mette
Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, warned on Monday that any US attack on
a Nato ally would be the end of “everything”.
“If the
United States decides to militarily attack another Nato country, then
everything would stop – that includes Nato and therefore post-second world war
security,” Frederiksen told Danish television network TV2.
Her
comments came after Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, made a
bracingly direct statement in which he urged Trump to give up his “fantasies
about annexation” and accused the US of “completely and utterly unacceptable”
rhetoric, declaring: “Enough is enough.”
“Threats,
pressure and talk of annexation have no place between friends,” said Nielsen in
a social media post. “That is not how you speak to a people who have shown
responsibility, stability and loyalty time and again. Enough is enough. No more
pressure. No more innuendo. No more fantasies about annexation.”
Greenland,
he said, was “open to dialogue” but it had to come through the appropriate
channels and be in line with international law, “not random and disrespectful
posts on social media”.
He added:
“Greenland is our home and our territory. And that is how it will remain.”
Frederiksen
said her government was doing all that was possible to prevent an attack on
Greenland and accused the US of applying “unacceptable pressure”, describing it
as an “unreasonable attack on the world community”.
“You
cannot go in and take over part of another country’s territory,” she told
Danish broadcaster DR, adding: “If the US chooses to attack another Nato
country, everything will stop.
“I have
said from the beginning that I unfortunately believe the American president is
serious about this. I have also made it very clear where Denmark stands. And
Greenland has repeatedly said that it does not want to be part of the USA.”
She had
been “very clear” to Trump, in public and private, said Frederiksen, adding
that she would “do everything … to fight for the fundamental democratic values
and the international community we have built.”
Nielsen
and Frederiksen were backed by the EU, which on Monday said it would not stop
defending the principle of territorial integrity, particularly when it came to
a member of the 27-member bloc.
“The EU
will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, territorial
integrity and the inviolability of borders,” the EU’s lead foreign policy
spokesperson, Anitta Hipper, told reporters. “These are universal principles,
and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial
integrity of a member state of the European Union is questioned.”
But
pressure is growing on Frederiksen, who faces a general election this year, to
go beyond diplomacy and lay out more concrete plans for how Denmark would
respond if Greenland were invaded.
Aaja
Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament and representative of
the Inuit Ataqatigiit party, said although she did not believe an invasion was
imminent, Greenlanders should “prepare for the worst”.
“We
should hope for the best and prepare for the worst. That’s the way I see it
right now. We are in a situation that is concerning.” Chemnitz said Trump’s
latest remarks were “the worst and most serious” of his threats to Greenland
and marked the emergence of a “new world order”.
“Just a
few months ago many of us were seeing the political world as we used to see it,
which is that you can have a dialogue, you can have collaboration … and so on,”
she said. “But the way that the US is talking about Greenland and trying to
‘collaborate with Greenland’, it’s a totally new world order that we are
looking at.”
Chemnitz
added: “The future of Greenland is completely up to us. I understand that he
[Trump] might be interested in having Greenland, but Greenland is not
interested in being part of the US.”
After
refusing to rule out military intervention to gain control of Greenland last
year, Trump has been relatively quiet on the subject in recent months.
But the
US bombardment of Venezuela to capture its president, Nicolás Maduro, and
Trump’s comments over the weekend have renewed fears that he may act on his
threats.
Speaking
on Air Force One, Trump refused to answer a question about whether he expected
to take action in Greenland, saying he would revisit the subject “in 20 days”
before going on to mock Danish defence efforts.
“Right
now, Greenland is full of Chinese and Russian ships everywhere. We need
Greenland for national security reasons. Denmark will not be able to handle the
task,” Trump said.
Pele
Broberg, the leader of Greenland’s pro-independence opposition party Naleraq,
said he was not concerned by Trump’s comments.
“I am
quite confident the US will protect Greenland as an independent nation when we
want to become one,” he said, adding that the Greenlandic government should be
in dialogue with the Trump administration. “Besides, the US can’t do anything
to us that Denmark hasn’t done already.”
Last
month, Danish intelligence services accused the US of using its economic power
to “assert its will” and threatening military force against its allies. It
comes against the backdrop of increasing tensions in the Arctic as three global
superpowers – the US, China and Russia – fight for dominance over minerals and
other geopolitical assets in the region as the ice melts.
Nordic
neighbours Sweden, Norway and Finland have all expressed their support for
Denmark. The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said: “Only Denmark and
Greenland have the right to decide on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland.
Sweden fully supports our neighbouring country.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário