With Denmark’s government still having the final say on its foreign policy and the US continuing to pile on pressure, Greenland needs to have a new Danish government in place as soon as possible, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the country’s prime minister, has said.
“I would like us to have a Danish government soon. That would be great for us in Greenland. Because when we talk about foreign policy and defense and so on, it’s about the Kingdom of Denmark, that is, Greenland and Denmark together,” Nielsen said in an on-stage interview at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit.
Nielsen was in the Danish capital on Tuesday to take part in the international conference alongside Denmark’s current prime minister Mette Frederiksen and former US national security advisor John Bolton.
In one week’s time, he will take part in a business conference in the Greenlandic capital Nuuk, with the name Future Greenland. Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, who is also Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, will take part.
Nielsen said he did not yet know if he would meet with Landry.
“I don’t know yet. If he wants to meet, I need to have a clear agenda of what he wants. We know this game in Greenland. We have been under this pressure for 15-16 months,” he said.
If there is a “concrete agenda”, he continued, he would “of course want to have a robust discussion with him”.
He said it was paramount that Greenland’s core position was recognised: that it is not for sale and will not accept threats of takeover.
“Imagine as head of government telling people that we can’t rule out anything. Just being at that point, I think, shows how seriously we’ve taken the situation,” he said.
On the other hand, he said, if Greenland is respected as a country, he would be ready to negotiate and meet with Americans to discuss business cooperation, development of the island’s natural resources, and security.
“We are ready to do more. To take greater responsibility in the Nato alliance when it comes to international security. We are ready to have broader and better business cooperation,” he said.
He would not go into details about the negotiation currently underway between the United States, Greenland and Denmark, which have come after repeated demands from Donald Trump that the US take over Greenland.
“We are negotiating, but we do not have an agreement,” Nielsen said.
