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Danish officials on Saturday revised against JD Vance’s criticism of their negligence towards Greenland, accusing America of considerably reducing its military presence in the Arctic.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, responded to the non -invited visit to the American vice -president in an American military base in Greenland by saying that Copenhagen was “open to criticism”, but that “we do not like the tone in which it is issued – this is not the way you talk to your relatives”.
He added: “In 1945, the United States had 17 military bases and installations in Greenland with thousands of soldiers. Today, only one American base is left … And something like 200 soldiers. We can do more, much more, in the frame that we have today … Let us do it together.”
Donald Trump’s public desire to take over Greenland from Denmark has placed the future of the Arctic island and its 57,000 people under geopolitical spotlights.
Vance, with the American national security councilor Mike Waltz and the energy secretary, Chris Wright, visited the Pituffik space base on the island on Friday and accused Denmark not to do “a good job by the people of Greenland”.
Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory in the kingdom of Denmark, but the majority of its population ultimately wants the independence of Copenhagen.
Danish officials, who unveiled a defense package of $ 2 billion after conceding that they had not invested sufficiently in the security of the island, initially adopted a cautious approach to the expansionist claims of Trump. But during last week, they became more assertive by pushing the United States.
Rasmussen said Vance also admitted that the United States had not invested sufficiently in the Arctic. “The fact is that we have all harvested the peace dividend. We all acted by assuming that the Arctic was and should be a low-voltage area. But this time is over. The status quo is not an option,” he said.
Trump argued that the United States has lagged behind Russia and China in areas such as the galaes, because its two largest geopolitical rivals are preparing for a merger of ice in the FAR North.
But Danish and Greenlanders were horrified by his rhetoric that “we must have” from Greenland, refusing to exclude military force.
Friday, Vance said that he did not think that “military force would never be necessary”, in part because it expected the Greenlanders to choose the independence of Denmark and subsequently a closer partnership with the United States. The vice-president added that there were threats from China and Russia in Greenland, but the experts said that the only public threat had come from the United States.
Denmark has sent troops to fight alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq and its officials were dismayed by the criticisms of their nearest security ally. But they were also relieved that Vance did not increase things. “I thought it would have been worse,” said one of them.
Put Frederiksen, Danish Prime Minister, said that Vance’s criticism was not “a fair way to refer to Denmark”, which she called “a good and strong ally” in the United States.
Under a large-scale defense agreement of 1951, the United States was authorized to set up military bases through Greenland as long as it does not impose on the sovereignty of Denmark.
Greenland and Danish officials said they had proposed several times in recent years to make the United States increase its military imprint, but America has rather reduced its presence.
Greenland unveiled a new broad government coalition on Friday. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the new Prime Minister, criticized Vance for a lack of respect by announcing his non-invited visit while the government’s training talks were still underway.
