Danes seem to be inclined to take President Trump at his word. Last month, King Frederick issued a decree that would edit Denmark’s coat of arms to make Greenland’s polar bear more prominent. Meanwhile, the Greenlandic government has renewed its calls for independence.
At the very least, Trump’s move was “very shoddy diplomacy,” said Arild Moe, an expert on Russia’s development of the Northern Sea Route at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Norway. “The very idea that you can buy self-governing territories is insane. But I think we can put that aside for a second and then talk about the interests of the United States, because there is something behind this. ”
He said melting sea ice and the rise of China have created new tensions in strategic decision-making in the region.
Mr. O’Hanlon said that the U.S. Arctic strategy to date has been less about “aggressively pursuing unilateral U.S. access” and more about Russia and China “preventing others from accessing the Arctic in the same way China does.” The goal was to prevent it.” He threatened to get involved in the South China Sea.”
President Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, told journalist Adam Rubenstein last week that during the president’s first term, he toned down his claims for sovereignty over Greenland and instead decided to He said he asked the president to expand the U.S. presence and influence through closed-door discussions. The Danes and the Greenlandic Government. “This is clearly a strategic interest,” he said.
This is the conversation Frederiksen appeared to be inviting in his comments to Danish media on Tuesday. Danish officials also question the need for the U.S. to own Greenland if the ally is open to further U.S. investment and military presence.
