Denmark and Greenland still have a fundamental disagreement with the U.S. over President Donald Trump’s desire to control the Arctic territory, Denmark’s foreign minister said Wednesday.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, finally had the chance to try to cool tensions at the White House after more than a year of aggressive internet trolling, statements and demands from the U.S. Their conversation did little to change Trump’s position. “We didn’t manage to change the American position,” Rasmussen told reporters after the meeting. “It’s clear that the president has this wish to conquer Greenland. We made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the Kingdom.”
Rasmussen and Motzfeldt described the session as respectful, frank and constructive, but their frustration that a longtime ally would not cooperate was evident. “It is of course very emotional for all of us,” Rasmussen said.
The U.S., Denmark and Greenland agreed to convene high-level working groups to see if they could find a way forward, but Rasmussen said he was unsure it would be possible. One EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks publicly, called the outcome positive because the sides agreed to keep diplomatic channels open.
Later Wednesday, while signing executive orders at the White House, Trump said he was still deciding how to address his concerns about Greenland, which he said the U.S. needs for his planned Golden Dome missile defense system. “If we don’t go in, Russia’s going to go in and China’s going to go in,” he said, and he declined to rule out using military force.