Since the phone call between the kingdom's Social Democrat prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, and US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, January 15, there has been one emergency meeting after the other at Christiansborg Palace, the seat of Denmark's parliament and government. On the Danish side, the 45-minute conversation was aimed at calming relations between the two countries, following the billionaire's January 7 statements that he was prepared to use force to seize Greenland. It has only served to heighten concern in Copenhagen.
Leaving a meeting with members of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament on Thursday, Frederiksen revealed that Trump had not retracted his statement. "The Americans have suggested that, unfortunately, we could end up in a situation where we work less together than we do today," she said, referring to the president-elect's threats to impose "high" tariffs on Danish exports if Copenhagen refused to cede Greenland to him.
The Danish PM noted that her country had been plunged into total uncertainty: "We're not in a position to say what's going to happen on the American side. We can explain what we are doing on the Danish side. But I can't give any guarantees on behalf of the Americans," she said, admitting that "the situation [was] serious."
You have 77% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.