 "A boat navigates large icebergs near the town of Kulusuk, in eastern Greenland, File Image- AP")
Denmark sent private messages to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s team expressing willingness to discuss boosting security in Greenland or increasing the U.S. military presence there without claiming the island, Axios reported on Saturday, citing two sources.
Trump has tossed expansionist rhetoric at U.S. allies and potential adversaries with arguments that the frontiers of American power need to be extended into Canada and the Danish territory of Greenland, and southward to include the Panama Canal.
Axios said that the Danish government wanted to convince Trump that his security concerns could be addressed without claiming Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this week that she had asked for a meeting with Trump, but did not expect it to happen before his inauguration. Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede too said he was ready to speak with Trump but urged respect for the island’s independence aspirations.
Denmark has previously said that Greenland is not for sale.
Trump’s suggestions that international borders can be redrawn — by force if necessary — are particularly inflammatory in Europe. His words run contrary to the argument European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are trying to impress on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But many European leaders — who’ve learned to expect the unexpected from Trump and have seen that actions don’t always follow his words — have been measured in their response, with some taking a nothing-to-see-here view rather than vigorously defend European Union member Denmark.
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