BRUSSELS Jan. 9 () –
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, stressed this Thursday that Greenland is part of Denmark and its territorial integrity and sovereignty must be respected, following threats by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, to control by he forces the island, which he perceives as strategic to influence the Arctic region.
In statements to the press to which Europa Press has had access, within the framework of her trip to Germany to attend the support meeting for Ukraine in the ‘Ramstein’ format, the former Estonian prime minister has revealed that she has maintained contacts this Wednesday with the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, to discuss the issue of Greenland after Trump’s message that he does not rule out resorting to force to control the island, an autonomous territory belonging to Denmark.
“Greenland is part of Denmark. We have to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Greenland,” said Kallas, after indicating that Frederiksen valued Trump’s interest in the Arctic region while insisting on Greenland’s sovereignty.
DENMARK DOES NOT TAKE IT TO THE EU OR NATO
For the moment, Copenhagen has avoided raising the matter with the EU or NATO and understands that these comments come at a time of change of administration in Washington, whose interest in Danish territory in the Arctic is not new.
In any case, Denmark insists that relations with the United States are good and both the prime minister and the foreign minister and former government leader, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, have experience in dealing with Trump in his previous term. Thus, from the Nordic country they defend that there is a clear path for Greenland to become independent, if its population so wishes, and that is why the sovereignty of the 60,000 inhabitants of the Arctic island must take precedence.
European sources explain that Trump’s latest statements have been discussed at ambassadorial level, and that apart from threatening to resort to force to control Greenland, he pointed out that he will exert commercial pressure on Denmark to increase its influence on the island.
REACTION OF EUROPEAN LEADERS
For their part, European leaders have responded in different ways to Trump’s comments, while one of their main allies in Europe, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has assumed that Washington will not try to take the Greenland island, and has framed Trump’s words in that he will not sit idly by if other international actors try to gain a presence in the area.
For his part, the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, has warned that the national borders of any country cannot be changed “by force”, recognizing that the comments of the president-elect of the United States have generated “a certain incomprehension” in Berlin and its European partners.
“We Europeans must remain united,” said the head of the German Government, appealing to a principle of inviolability of borders that he considers key to the peaceful maintenance of international order and that “applies to all countries.”
Meanwhile, France has called on the European Commission to act “with the utmost firmness” against foreign “interference” and has called for a strong defense of “sovereign borders”, after pointing out that Greenland belongs to Denmark and is “EU territory.” “.
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