Germany, Sweden warn Trump over new Greenland threats

AFP | Berlin

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Germany and Sweden on Sunday pushed back as US President Donald Trump again suggested using force to seize the self-governing Danish territory of Greenland.

The US general who is NATO’s supreme commander in Europe said meanwhile that the military alliance was having “healthy” talks on Greenland’s importance.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned US “threatening rhetoric” after Trump repeated that Washington was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not”.

“On the contrary, the United States should thank Denmark, which over the years has been a very loyal ally,” Kristersson said at a conference on Swedish defence.

“Sweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries stand together with our Danish friends,” he said.

Kristersson stressed a US takeover of the mineral-rich Arctic territory would be “a violation of international law and risks encouraging other countries to act in exactly the same way”.

“It is a dangerous path to take,” he added.

No ‘immediate threat’

Meanwhile, Germany reiterated its support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of meetings in Washington on Monday.

Before talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadehpul will stop Sunday in Reykjavik to address the “strategic challenges of the Far North”, according to the foreign ministry statement.

“The legitimate interests of all NATO Allies, as well as those of the inhabitants of the (Arctic) region, must be at the centre of our discussions,” Wadehpul said in the statement.

“It is clear that it is exclusively up to Greenland and Denmark to decide questions of Greenland’s territory and sovereignty,” he previously told Germany’s Bild daily.

NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Alexus Grynkewich told the Swedish defence conference that alliance members were having talks on Greenland’s future. The US general added that while there was “no immediate threat” to NATO territory, the Arctic’s strategic importance is fast growing.