ANKARA, Turkey, July 8 (Reuters) – Denmark is ready to defend every inch of NATO, including the kingdom of Denmark, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in Ankara on Wednesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated that Greenland should be controlled by the U.S.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen also rejected Trump’s remarks on Wednesday.
Trump’s assertions that the U.S. must acquire or control Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, have strained relations between Washington and Copenhagen — both founding members of NATO — and more broadly U.S. ties with Europe. The issue is now under negotiation.
“We are ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory… Of course we will defend the Kingdom of Denmark,” Frederiksen said, reiterating that Greenland was not for sale.
“One of the reasons why we have built NATO many, many years ago, is if anything happens to one of us, then everybody should stand up for each other,” she said.Â
Greenland’s Nielsen took to Facebook to reject Trump’s latest assertion, writing that: “Repeated calls for the takeover or control of our country do not change this.” He also reiterated that Greenland was not for sale.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen separately told reporters in Ankara that Denmark was still pursuing diplomatic negotiations with Greenland and the U.S. The outcome of those talks has yet to be presented.
“We have an agreement with the U.S. administration that, within the framework of the kingdom’s red lines, we will try to see if we can find a solution that also addresses the U.S.’ legitimate security interests,” Rasmussen said.
“Because those interests exist, and we share them, and we are also responding to them,” he added.
Rasmussen said he “firmly” believed it was possible to reach a deal that would satisfy Greenland, Denmark and the U.S., by expanding a 1951 U.S.-Danish defence agreement that gives Washington broad military access to the Arctic island.
Nielsen said in May that increasing the U.S. military presence in the Arctic territory was part of the ongoing talks.
(Reporting by Louise Rasmussen and Essi Lehto; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Philippa Fletcher and Hugh Lawson)
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