Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Monday that he would summon the US ambassador to Denmark to discuss President Donald Trump’s appointment of a special envoy to Greenland.
“I am very upset by this appointment and the statement and I find it completely unacceptable,” Lokke Rasmussen told Danish media TV2 in an interview on Monday morning. He added that he hoped the meeting would be held today or tomorrow.
Since taking office for his second term, President Trump has repeatedly said that the United States needs Greenland, a resource-rich autonomous region of Denmark, for security reasons. He declined to rule out the possibility of using force.
Meanwhile, Greenland has shown little interest in becoming a top mining nation, and its leaders have criticized calls by the US government to make it a US territory.
Late Sunday, President Trump posted on social media that he had appointed Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as the U.S. special envoy to Greenland.
“Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our national security and will strongly advance our interests in the safety, security, and survival of our allies and indeed the world,” the president wrote.
Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined further comment and referred to Lokke Rasmussen’s TV2 interview.
In an Instagram post translated by CNBC, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said: “Greenland belongs to Greenlanders and the US should not take over Greenland.”
“No one should be allowed to change borders by force, either politically or militarily,” Frederiksen wrote on Monday, adding that he expected respect for Denmark’s territorial integrity.
