PM: Greenland to Boost Ties With Denmark Amid ‘Disrespectful’ U.S. Rhetoric

Date: 27 April 2025 - 21:49

News ID: ۱۳۸۹۱۵

COPENHAGEN (Reuters/AFP) – Greenland is working on strengthening its relations with Denmark following disrespectful rhetoric from the U.S. administration, the Arctic island’s new Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Sunday.
“We are in a foreign policy situation which means we have to move closer together,” Nielsen said in Copenhagen at a joint press conference with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen.
Greenland will never be a “piece of property” to be bought, the Arctic island’s new prime minister said, criticizing US talk of seizing the Danish autonomous territory as lacking respect.
Nielsen made the comments as he paid his first visit to Denmark since taking office, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to take his strategically located island looming large over the diplomatic trip.
“We will never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by anyone, and that’s the message I think is most important to understand,” Nielsen told reporters.
His visit follows one by Frederiksen to Greenland in early April, when she told the United States “you cannot annex another country”.
Both Frederiksen and Nielsen, who leads Greenland’s new coalition government after his centre-right Democrats party won a legislative election in March, however said they would be willing to meet the U.S. leader for talks.
Tensions between the United States and Denmark have soared after Trump repeatedly said he wanted to take control of the resource-rich Arctic island.
The U.S. president has insisted Washington needs control of Greenland for security reasons, refusing to rule out the use of force to secure it.
“I think we need that for international peace, and if we don’t have that it’s a big threat to our world. So I think Greenland is very important for international peace,” Trump told reporters Thursday during a press conference alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance also paid a visit to Greenland in March, which both Nuuk and Copenhagen viewed as a provocation.
During his trip to the Pituffik U.S. military base, Vance castigated Denmark for not having “done a good job by the people of Greenland”.
“You have under-invested in the people of Greenland and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass,” he told a press conference.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen responded on social media: “We are open to criticisms, but let me be completely honest, we do not appreciate the tone in which it’s being delivered.”
Nielsen himself has said that “the United States will not get Greenland”.
“We don’t belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,” he added in a Facebook post.