BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed the “strong relationship” between the U.S. and Denmark in a meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen in Brussels on Thursday, the State Department said.
The meeting followed months of tension between Washington and Copenhagen over U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated declarations that Greenland – a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark – should become part of the United States.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance visited a U.S. military base in northern Greenland last Friday and accused Denmark of not doing a good job of keeping the Arctic island safe. He suggested the U.S. would better protect the strategically-located territory.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who has said it is up to the people of Greenland to decide their own future, called Vance’s description of Denmark “not fair”.
A brief State Department statement after the meeting between Rubio and Rasmussen did not mention Greenland, but said the two “discussed shared priorities including increasing NATO defense spending and burden sharing, and addressing the threats to the Alliance, including those posed by Russia and China”.
Frederiksen landed in Nuuk on Wednesday on a three-day trip and pledged to support Greenland against Trump’s repeated vows to control the Arctic island.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, additional reporting by Louise Rasmussen in Copenhagen, writing by Andrew Gray, editing by Ingrid Melander, William Maclean)
Comments