Daily SumUp

Denmark on Thursday expressed its strong reservations over US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks on Greenland, accusing Washington of escalating tensions and interfering in Denmark’s internal affairs.

“The US is escalating the tensions,” Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR. “I think they are going too far – both in interfering in Greenland’s internal affairs and in showing a lack of respect for its people’s right to decide their future.”

His response comes after Trump told podcaster Vince Coglianese on Wednesday that the US “needs” Greenland “for international safety and security.”

“We have to have the land because it’s not possible to properly defend a large section of this Earth – not just the US – without it. So we have to have it, and I think we will have it,” he said.

Lund dismissed the remarks as “far-fetched and unreasonable,” warning that Trump’s rhetoric was becoming increasingly aggressive and amounted to a “hidden threat” against the Danish Realm, which consists of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.