 "Denmark says door open for 'proper negotiations' with US again after Trump–Rutte meeting")
Denmark’s foreign minister said Thursday the door was once again open for “proper negotiations” with the United States after President Donald Trump’s meeting with Nato chief Mark Rutte a day earlier.
Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told journalists that Wednesday’s meeting between Trump and Rutte had “the positive outcome that a door has now been opened for us to once again have a proper negotiation between the Kingdom – meaning Denmark and Greenland – on one side and the United States on the other”.
“We share the objectives but not necessarily the methods” with the United States regarding security in the Arctic, said Lokke Rasmussen. “Now there is an opportunity for us to make things fit together.”
Leaders of Denmark and its territory Greenland insisted Thursday that the island’s sovereignty was non-negotiable after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had agreed on a framework with the Nato chief that Trump said would grant the U.S. “total access” to the island.
Much about the potential deal remained unclear, though Trump said in a Fox Business interview that “we’re going to have total access to Greenland" as part of what he has said is needed to ensure the island does not come under control of Russia or China. He added that “we’re going to have all the military access we want."
Nato spokesperson Allison Hart said the alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte did not propose any “compromise to sovereignty" in discussions with Trump, and Danish officials have noted that, in any case, NATO doesn’t have a mandate to negotiate a deal on behalf of Denmark and Greenland.
Quick Reads
View AllTrump on Wednesday abruptly scrapped the tariffs he had threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Nato ally Denmark. It was a dramatic reversal hours after he insisted he wanted to get the island “including right, title and ownership” — though he also said he would not use force.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen voiced guarded relief, but he said he knew no concrete details of the agreement Trump cited.
“‘I don’t know what there is in the agreement, or the deal about my country,” he told reporters.
Trump called it a “framework of a future deal” that, if completed, would also allow the United States to install an element of his “Golden Dome,” part of a multibillion dollar missile defence system, in Greenland.
With inputs from agencies
 "‘Europe looks lost’: Zelenskyy criticises allies, says Ukrainians face a ‘Groundhog Day’ of war and delay")
 "Trump to sue New York Times over unfavourable opinion poll, calls 'fake' surveys criminal")
 "Who really runs Iran? Shadow force IRGC tightens grip on power amid regime change chatter")
 "French navy intercepts Russian oil tanker in Mediterranean over shadow fleet links")
 "‘Europe looks lost’: Zelenskyy criticises allies, says Ukrainians face a ‘Groundhog Day’ of war and delay")
 "Trump to sue New York Times over unfavourable opinion poll, calls 'fake' surveys criminal")
 "Who really runs Iran? Shadow force IRGC tightens grip on power amid regime change chatter")
 "French navy intercepts Russian oil tanker in Mediterranean over shadow fleet links")
