Greenland crisis US threats

Trump on Greenland: “We will get everything we want”

The Trump administration is negotiating an agreement that will give the US “complete access” to Greenland, the president claims in an interview with Fox News.

– We will get everything we want, and it will not cost anything, he says. 

Frederiksen shoots down new agreement: “NATO chief has no mandate to negotiate”

NATO chief Mark Rutte has no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark or Greenland on the Greenland issue. The message is hammered home by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen when she is interviewed on Danmarks Radio on Thursday morning, after details of the framework agreement between Rutte and Trump were widely circulated.

Frederiksen says that Denmark’s “red lines” are exactly the same as they have been all along.

– We are of course not giving up sovereignty. Greenland’s future should be defined by Greenland and Greenland is part of Denmark.

At the same time, she believes that “some progress” has been made and she is now ready to discuss how Arctic security should be strengthened.

The same red line is repeated by Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen. But he also adds that his view is that “Rutte has worked loyally for cohesion within NATO” and that the forward movement makes him “very happy”.

“There will of course be more difficult conversations with the Americans”, he writes.

Correspondents: Nonsense that Trump achieved something

A couple of European correspondents are coming down hard on Donald Trump after the Greenland threat and subsequent U-turn. The president will now pretend that he has achieved something, which is complete nonsense, writes Sky News correspondent Mark Stone.

Trump backed down as soon as he got the chance and the only thing he has succeeded in doing is causing permanent damage to NATO cooperation, Stone continues.

BBC Europe correspondent Nick Beake describes Trump’s actions as “the mother of all retreats”. In his text, he highlights the efforts of NATO chief Mark Rutte. Previously, Rutte has been mocked for praising Trump and calling him “Daddy,” but this time he actually seems to have made Trump back down.

“The tensions have now eased, but this is far from resolved.”

German and French media are also filled with analyses of Trump’s U-turn. German TV channel ZDF’s political commentator Diana Zimmermann and Die Tageszeitung’s writer Leon Holly agree that the threat to Greenland remains, despite Trump’s explicit promise not to use military force.

“As is well known, you can’t take Trump at his word. What’s more, the bully confirmed his imperialist ambitions in the next breath,” Holly writes.