Denmark has warned NATO unity is at risk after Donald Trump revived threats over Greenland, raising concerns about alliance stability.
After his military action in Venezuela, the US Trump declared on Sunday that the country needs Greenland "very badly." Concerns of a US invasion of the mostly independent island, which was originally a Danish colony and is now a part of the Danish crown, were revived by this comment. The diplomatic and security policies of Greenland are still governed by Copenhagen.
On Monday, Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, warned that if the United States attacked a NATO ally, "everything" would end.
Her comments came after Greenland's prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, made an astonishingly direct statement calling on Trump to give up his "fantasies about annexation" and accused the US of "completely and utterly unacceptable" statements, declaring, "Enough is enough."
“Threats, pressure and talk of annexation have no place between friends,”
said Nielsen in a social media post.
“That is not how you speak to a people who have shown responsibility, stability and loyalty time and again. Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more innuendo. No more fantasies about annexation.”
He stated that while Greenland was "open to dialogue," it had to follow the proper procedures and adhere to international law, "not random and disrespectful posts on social media."
Frederiksen described the US's "unacceptable pressure" as a "unreasonable attack on the world community" and stated that her administration was making every effort to stop an attack on Greenland.
“You cannot go in and take over part of another country’s territory,”
she told Danish broadcaster DR, adding:
“If the US chooses to attack another Nato country, everything will stop.
I have said from the beginning that I unfortunately believe the American president is serious about this. I have also made it very clear where Denmark stands. And Greenland has repeatedly said that it does not want to be part of the USA.”
In both public and private, she had been "very clear" with Trump, Frederiksen said, adding that she will
"do everything... to fight for the fundamental democratic values and the international community we have built."
The EU, which declared on Monday that it would continue to defend the concept of territorial integrity, supported Nielsen and Frederiksen.
“The EU will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders,”
the EU’s lead foreign policy spokesperson, Anitta Hipper, told reporters.
“These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial integrity of a member state of the European Union is questioned.”
Still, there's adding pressure on Frederiksen, who's over for a general election this time, to go beyond tactfulness and give further specific measures for Denmark's response in the event of an irruption of Greenland.
Greenlanders should" prepare for the worst," according to Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of the Danish congress and representative of the Inuit Ataqatigiit party, indeed if she didn't suppose an irruption was imminent.
Trump has been largely silent on the content in recent months, following his turndown to rule out military involvement to seize control of Greenland last time.
However, Trump's remarks over the weekend and the US bombardment of Venezuela to apprehend its president, Nicolás Maduro, have rekindled concerns that he would carry out his threats.
“I am quite confident the US will protect Greenland as an independent nation when we want to become one,”
he said, adding that the
Greenlandic government should be in dialogue with the Trump administration.
“Besides, the US can’t do anything to us that Denmark hasn’t done already.”
Last month, Danish security agencies accused the United States of threatening to use military force against its allies and of using economic power to "assert its will." Tensions in the Arctic are rising as three global superpowers, China, Russia, and the United States compete for control of the region's minerals and other geopolitical resources as the ice melts.
Denmark has received backing from its Nordic neighbors, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
"Only Denmark and Greenland have the right to decide on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland,"
stated Ulf
Kristersson, the prime minister of Sweden. Sweden is completely in favor of our
neighbor.
What legal protections cover Greenland under NATO and international law
Greenland enjoys robust legal protections under both NATO's Composition 5 collaborative defense clause and core principles of transnational law as an independent home of Denmark, a founding NATO member.
NATO's North Atlantic Treaty explicitly includes" islets under the governance of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer," encompassing Greenland; an fortified attack on it would spark obligatory collaborative defense from all 32 abettors , though incantation requires North Atlantic Council agreement.
The UN Charter's Composition 2( 4) prohibits pitfalls or use of force against territorial integrity or political independence, with Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland affirmed by the 1953 Act on Greenlandic Self- Government( feting Inuit tone- determination rights).