Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Copenhagen is willing to invest more in Greenland as Denmark tries to fend off U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to seize the Arctic island.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to take over Greenland, a strategically located autonomous Danish territory with vast caches of rare earth minerals — and he has refused to rule out using military force to acquire it.
“We are willing to invest more in the development of the Greenlandic society,” Frederiksen said in a joint press conference Tuesday with her Greenlandic and Faroese leaders.
“This could be ports, and it could be another type of critical infrastructure that both has a defense and military perspective, but which can also be used, for example, in relation to tourism or raw materials extraction,” she added.
Greenland has a strong independence movement and has been gradually gaining autonomy for decades. Still, Greenlanders prefer Denmark over the U.S., and few think the island is ready to become independent immediately.
European leaders — most recently French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the island Sunday — have repeatedly condemned Trump’s threats, saying Greenland is not up for grabs.
In May, Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt told POLITICO that she wanted to deepen “bilateral” ties with the EU, particularly in developing its critical mineral resources.
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