Danes have expressed shock and disbelief over Donald Trump’s cancellation of a state visit to Denmark after its prime minister rebuffed his interest in purchasing Greenland, report agencies.
The US president’s proposal at first elicited incredulity and humour from politicians in Denmark, a NATO ally, with the former premier Lars Løkke Rasmussen saying: “It must be an April Fool’s Day joke.” But the mood turned to shock when Trump called off the 2-3 September visit after the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, called his idea of the US buying Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, absurd.
“Total chaos with @realDonaldTrump and cancellation of state visit to Denmark. It has gone from a big opportunity for strengthened dialogue between allies to a diplomatic crisis,” the former foreign minister Kristian Jensen, a member of the opposition Liberal party, said on Twitter. “Everyone should know Greenland is not for sale,” Jensen said of the world’s largest island, which has considerable mineral wealth and a US military presence at the Thule airbase under a 1951 treaty.
Frederiksen, who had been due to hold talks with Trump in Copenhagen, was unavailable for comment as she was travelling after a visit to Greenland and Iceland this week. She had said Greenland was “not for sale” and she hoped Trump’s proposal was “not meant seriously”. “It is very, very shocking, when it is about a very close ally and a good friend,” Søren Espersen, the foreign affairs spokesman for the hard-right Danish People’s party, told the Danish news agency Ritzau.
He described Trump’s cancellation as an offence to Queen Margrethe, Denmark’s head of state, and said he did not expect another visit by the US president would happen. Trump and his wife, Melania, were formally invited to Denmark by Queen Margrethe in July. “It shows why we now more than ever should consider [fellow] European Union countries as our closest allies. The man is unpredictable,” said Morten Østergaard, leader of the Danish Social Liberal party. “Reality surpasses imagination.”
Trump, whose “America First” policies have resulted in strained relations with the EU over trade and other issues, said on Sunday that a US purchase of Greenland would be “a large real estate deal”, though not an immediate priority. “Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
Greenland, which is gaining attention from world powers including China, Russia and the US because of its strategic location and mineral resources, is self-governing but depends on Denmark for economic support. Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a lawmaker from Greenland’s opposition Inuit Ataqatigiit party, said she was not surprised at the cancellation but it underlined the territory’s importance. “The US is an interesting ally for Greenland, but we also wish for Greenland to remain in the union we have today,” she said.
