Back to the load. Donald Trump rekindles tensions in the Arctic with Denmark and the European Union over their territorial claims over Greenland. Last night, without prior notice, the president of the United States appointed the governor of Louisiana as the White House’s special envoy to the largest island on the planet. Jeff Landrywho will occupy a newly created position.
“Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our national security and will strongly advance our country’s interests for the protection, security and survival of our allies and, indeed, the world,” the Republican president wrote on his platform, Truth Social.
Landry’s response came through
His words set off alarm bells in Nuuk, Copenhagen and the rest of the European foreign ministries. A year after his first threat of annexation, Trump resumes his hostile campaign against the former Danish colony, an autonomous territory of 57,000 inhabitants that remains under the sovereignty of Denmark.
“We have woken up again with a new announcement from the president of the United States. This may sound important, but it does not change anything for us. We decide our own future,” the Greenlandic prime minister and leader of the Demokraatit liberals reacted this Monday, Jens Frederik Nielsenwinner of the parliamentary elections last March.
Nielsen later issued a joint statement with the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksento reiterate two fundamental demands, that is, that “another country cannot be annexed, even with an argument of international security” and that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the United States should not take control of Greenland.”
“There is no reason for concern. We are united and we remain firm,” reaffirmed through Facebook the president of the Greenlandic Government (Naalakkersuisut), a broad coalition of liberals, social democrats, environmentalists and conservatives with different sensitivities on the independence issue that was born to resist Trump’s pressures.
“Out of nowhere, there is now a US special presidential representative who, according to himself, is tasked with taking control of Greenland,” lamented the Danish Foreign Minister on Monday. Lars Løkke Rasmussenwho acknowledged being “deeply upset” with the measure of the president of the United States. “This is, of course, completely unacceptable,” he said in statements to the network. TV2.
“It is a difficult situation that our lifelong allies are putting us in,” Frederiksen herself acknowledged through a publication on Instagram.
Landry’s appointment, who insists on the idea of turning the Arctic island into another American territory, comes preceded by the annual report published in early December by the Danish military intelligence service, which identified for the first time the United States as a potential threat to its national security.
In addition to Landry’s appointment, the Trump Administration announced this Monday the suspension of the lease contracts for five large offshore wind projects being built off the east coast of the United States, including two others developed by the Danish state company Orsted. A decision that does not seem casual at all.
Also this Monday, the head of Danish diplomacy summoned the United States ambassador, Kenneth Howerya former PayPal executive close to Trump who had promised to maintain bilateral relations based on “mutual respect” during a recent visit to Greenland.
“I very much look forward to working with my colleagues in the Danish Government on our shared concerns about security in the Arctic,” he said last November from Nuuk. Clearly it is an unfulfilled promise.