Denmark’s defense boss not ‘able to imagine’ a US takeover of Greenland

COPENHAGEN — Denmark’s Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen refused to comment on recent reports that the U.S. has increased its spying on Greenland.

Poulsen, Denmark's deputy prime minister, was also reluctant to address U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland, a Danish territory, stressing that Washington “is a friend of Europe and Denmark.”

“We’re strong allies within NATO, and I will not be able to imagine that one NATO country could take a part of another NATO country,” Poulsen said Tuesday at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. “I don't think that this is a serious discussion.”

“We are, together with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the U.S. cannot take a part of this kingdom,” the defense minister added. 

Greenland's deputy prime minister, Múte Bourup Egede, also addressed Trump's claims during the summit, stressing that "nothing [will be decided] about us without us."

"We are ready to talk with the Americans," Egede stressed. "But we are not a property. Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people."

Trump raised the possibility of acquiring Greenland during his first term and has repeatedly returned to the idea this year. In an interview earlier this month, he refused to rule out the use of force to take the island, home to 57,000 people.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Trump ordered U.S. spy agencies to increase their intelligence gathering efforts on the island.

Poulsen declined to comment about the report.

“You see a lot of rumors in the media, and I don't comment on these rumors,” the Danish minister said. “The response from Denmark was quite clear: The minister of foreign affairs invited the ambassador to a meeting last week [to lodge a protest], and he made his position very clear.”

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also stressed that “you cannot spy against an ally.”

Although Greenland's Egede did not address the spying reports, he clearly criticized the U.S. president: "We have been good partners, but what Trump does now, we don’t like it."

Egede said Trump's claims had brought Greenland closer not only to Denmark but also to the EU. The self-ruling Danish territory voted in a 1982 referendum to leave the European Communities, a precursor to the EU, and formally left the bloc in 1985.

Egede added he was ready to discuss a minerals deal with Brussels.

"We have 27 critical minerals out of the 35 the EU wants. But there’s been too much blah-blah-blah — we need action, we need growth in our country, and [if] either the EU or the U.S. wants our critical materials, they need to talk with us," the deputy prime minister said.