Denmark and Greenland’s envoys to Washington have begun a vigorous effort to urge U.S. lawmakers as well as key Trump administration officials to step back from President Donald Trump’s call for a takeover of the strategic Arctic island, AP reported on Jan. 8 in the afternoon, citing unnamed Danish government officials. Denmark’s Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, and Jacob Isbosethsen, Greenland’s chief representative to Washington, met on Jan. 8 with White House National Security Council officials to discuss a renewed push by Trump to acquire Greenland, perhaps by military force. Danish officials are reported to be hopeful about the upcoming talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington. “This is the dialogue that is needed, as requested by the government together with the Greenlandic government,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR.
AP quotes U.S. President Donald Trump telling the New York Times in an Jan. 8 interview that he has to possess the entirety of Greenland instead of just exercising a long-standing treaty that gives the United States wide latitude to use Greenland for military posts. “I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do with, you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document,” Trump claimed.
