US President Donald Trump had a “heated” conversation with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen about his firm decision to buy Greenland, this Friday the newspaper says Financial Times (FT).
According to the British newspaper, five senior European officials said that the 45-minute telephone conversation Trump and Frederiksen had last week, “it had gone very badly.”
They added that the US president responded “aggressive and confrontational” to the Danish Prime Minister’s comments, after she emphasized that the Arctic island, an autonomous part of Denmark, “was not for sale.”
“He (Trump) was very firm. It was a splash of cold water. Before it was difficult to take it seriously, but now I think it is serious and potentially very dangerous,” one of the European officials told the FT.
Another former Danish official, also informed about the call, assured the aforementioned newspaper that Trump had harshly threatened to take “specific measures against Denmarksuch as selective tariffs”.
Given this information, Frederiksen’s office said that “it did not recognize the interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources”.
“The prime minister referred in the conversation to the statements of the regional president MĂște B. Egede that Greenland is not for sale and has stated that it is Greenland itself that decides on its independence,” the Danish Government said in a statement on January 15, when the conversation between Trump and Frederiksen took place.
Likewise, Egede showed himself open to negotiating with the United States and said he had “started a dialogue and begun to explore possibilities for cooperating with Trump,” but stressed that the island “is not for sale.”
Before his arrival at the White House, Trump said that would not rule out the use of military force or economic sanctions to take over Greenland, statements later qualified by his now vice president, JD Vance.
The United States has a base in the north of the islandunder a broad defense agreement with Denmark signed seven decades ago that includes the possibility of increasing the US military presence.
This Arctic island, the largest in the world, with two million square kilometers (80% covered by ice) and barely 56,000 inhabitants, has enjoyed a new status since 2009 that recognizes their right to self-determination.
The majority of parties and the population They defend the separation of Denmark, But half of the island’s budget depends on annual aid from Copenhagen and attempts to increase income with its mineral and oil wealth have so far failed due to the difficulties and high cost of extraction.
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