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By Sean Rayment
Six European allies have rallied to support Denmark following renewed insistence by the United States that it must have control over Greenland.
“Greenland belongs to its people, and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations,” the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark said in a joint statement.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump said the US “needed” Greenland, a semi-autonomous region of fellow Nato member Denmark, for security reasons. He has refused to rule out the use of force to take control of the territory, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned on Monday that an attack by the US would spell the end of Nato.
Nato is a transatlantic military alliance in which members are expected to come to one another’s aid in the event of an external attack.
The issue of Greenland’s future resurfaced in the wake of the US military intervention in Venezuela, during which elite troops seized President Nicolás Maduro and transported him to New York to face drugs and weapons charges. Following the raid, Trump said the US would “run” Venezuela for an unspecified period.
He also said the US was returning to an 1823 policy of American supremacy within its sphere of influence in the western hemisphere, and warned that a number of countries could become the focus of US attention.
The raid in Venezuela reignited fears that the US may consider using force to secure control of Greenland. A day later, Katie Miller, the wife of one of Trump’s senior aides, posted a map of Greenland coloured like the American flag on social media, alongside the word “SOON”.
On Monday, her husband Stephen Miller said it was “the formal position of the US government that Greenland should be part of the US”. In an interview with CNN, he said the US “is the power of Nato. For the US to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend Nato and Nato interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the US.”
Asked repeatedly whether the US would rule out using force to annex the territory, Miller responded: “Nobody’s going to fight the US over the future of Greenland.”
Stressing that they shared the US’s commitment to Arctic security, the seven European signatories said this must be achieved collectively by Nato allies, including the US, while upholding “the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders”.
Trump has claimed that incorporating Greenland into the US would serve American security interests because of its strategic location and its abundance of minerals critical to high-tech industries. The administration’s recent decision to appoint a special envoy to Greenland prompted anger in Denmark.
Greenland, which has a population of around 57,000, has enjoyed extensive self-government since 1979, although defence and foreign policy remain under Danish control. While most Greenlanders favour eventual independence from Denmark, opinion polls show overwhelming opposition to becoming part of the United States.
