Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said today that Denmark insists on all countries, including the United States, respecting its territorial integrity after US President Donald Trump appointed the governor of Louisiana as a special envoy to Greenland, the Associated Press and Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
"I am deeply concerned by the appointment of this special envoy and especially by his statements, which we find completely unacceptable", Rasmussen said.
"We woke up again with a new statement from the US president. It may sound loud, but it does not change anything for us. "We decide our own future," Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen wrote on his Facebook page.
In the early months of his second term, Trump repeatedly called for the establishment of American jurisdiction over Greenland, a vast and semi-autonomous Danish territory, and did not rule out the use of military force to take control of the mineral-rich and strategically located Arctic island. In March of this year, US Vice President J.D. Vance visited a remote US military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of not investing enough in the island.
In August, Danish authorities summoned the US ambassador to Copenhagen after information that at least three individuals associated with Donald Trump were carrying out covert activities to advance US influence in Greenland.
Earlier this month, the Danish Military Intelligence Service said in an annual report that the US is using its economic power to “impose its will” and threaten both friendly and enemy countries with military force.
Greenland, a former Danish colony with a population of about 57,000, has been legally independent from Denmark since 2009. The semi-autonomous territory's economy relies heavily on fishing and subsidies from Copenhagen, and the island is strategically located on the shortest route between Europe and North America, a vital location for the US missile defense system.