The security policy situation is too serious to think about limitations, the Prime Minister believes.
No one followed further restrictions with when the US agreed on two bases in Greenland on Tuesday, even though US security interests have moved further away from Europe’s in recent years.
Historically, there are many cases where the US’s use of bases abroad has led to controversies and scandals, but this does not worry the Danish government.
– I would say quite generally that in the security policy situation we are in, I do not spend my energy on everything that you are not allowed to do. I think that we must be able to defend ourselves against our enemies, and our enemies are moving closer, and they will also do that in the Arctic, says Mette Frederiksen (S).
In New York, Mette Frederiksen, together with the Greenlandic head of government, signed an updated defense agreement with the United States for Greenland on Tuesday.
It broadly reaffirms the existing agreement from 1951, which was concluded at a time when the security policy situation was characterized by the Cold War, while today the USA is, for example, more concerned with China than Russia.
Continued ban on nuclear weapons
The Secretary of State, who initiated the whole process in Washington DC in January, and who attended the meetings in New York, points to a single limitation, namely the continued ban on nuclear weapons, which was negotiated and agreed upon in 1968.
– But minus that, the agreement is an opportunity for the US to establish itself with a military footprint in Greenland, which they already can. Precisely on that point, it is codification (to enshrine into law, ed.) of existing agreements, says Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M).
No country has as many bases abroad as the United States. For years, the Americans have used these in military operations around the world – sometimes against the wishes of the host countries.
This happened, among other things, when the US bombed Iraq from bases in Saudi Arabia in 2003. In connection with the same war, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, put his foot down and forbade the US to bomb from Turkish bases.
More recently, the US’s use of the German Ramstein base for drone strikes in Yemen has resulted in a case at the German Constitutional Court, which said, among other things, that Germany may have a duty to protect human rights in foreign countries.
However, the plaintiffs lost the case, as, according to the court, there was no systematic infringement.
Is about homeland security
Lars Løkke Rasmussen cannot see cases in relation to the American bases in Greenland.
– Because it is about “homeland security” (United States’ national security, ed.). Greenland is where Greenland is, and the American continent is where it is, and the Russians are building up, and they are about to let the Chinese in, says the foreign minister.
In 1957, then Prime Minister HC Hansen (S) secretly gave the Americans permission to have nuclear weapons in Greenland – after he had also campaigned for a nuclear-weapon-free Denmark.
Some years later, in 1968, an American B52 bomber crashed at Thule with hydrogen bombs, and the area became radioactively contaminated.
Subsequently, the USA and Denmark entered into an agreement that there must be no nuclear weapons in Greenland. This also applies to the agreement that was concluded on Tuesday this week, which broadly does not change anything militarily for the US presence in Greenland.
QUESTION: Do you recognize that the United States might end up using these bases for something that we don’t think is pretty cool?
– No, I don’t really do that, because to the extent that the Americans do something that we don’t think is particularly cool, I don’t see that it is based in Greenland.
Important that nuclear policy is intact
– The important thing for us is that our nuclear policy is intact, and that in this context we do not give the USA any greater access than they actually had before. I will not undersell the agreement, but in this field it is a repetition of the rights that the USA already has, says Lars Løkke.
QUESTION: Do you think the United States and Denmark agree one-to-one on who are friends and enemies today?
– We agree one-for-one to stick to the NATO alliance, which is basically about protecting the transatlantic community of interests, and that is absolutely crucial. We need to keep Americans engaged in it. This agreement will also contribute to that.
– And then I can easily see the difference between the foreign policy that Trump leads and the one that I lead myself. But I can also see the difference between the weight with which Trump conducts foreign policy and the weight with which I do it, says the foreign minister.
Although there are no new requirements for the military use of bases in Greenland, the agreement tightens requirements for the US to take care of the environment in Greenland, where US bases have previously caused massive pollution to the detriment of the local population.
The updated defense agreement can only enter into force once it has been approved by parliament in Greenland and Denmark.
RITZAU
