Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is turning to her European allies for help in dealing with Donald Trump’s demands to appropriate Greenland, as she tries to project unity and avoid antagonizing the US president.
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(Bloomberg) — Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is turning to her European allies for help in dealing with Donald Trump’s demands to appropriate Greenland, as she tries to project unity and avoid antagonizing the US president.
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The 47-year-old leader visited German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Tuesday before meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels. The tour of major capitals comes on the heels of a viral photo of Frederiksen sitting down for a meal with the leaders of Finland, Sweden, and Norway over the weekend.
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Alongside the demonstrations of solidarity, Denmark has underscored its ties with Greenland by injecting 14.6 billion kroner ($2 billion) into boosting defense capabilities on the mineral-rich Arctic island — part of a broader initiative to step up patrols in North Atlantic waters.
Despite near daily pressure from the White House, Denmark’s strategy is to avoid escalation by not publicly engaging with Trump’s threats, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not be named talking about private discussions. The country has asked European allies to do the same, the people said.
In line with the approach, Frederiksen and Scholz notably sidestepped any direct mention of the Greenland crisis in their statements to reporters ahead of the talks in Berlin. The closest they got was a thinly veiled reference to territorial demands.
Without mentioning Trump or Greenland, Scholz said that the inviolability of borders is a fundamental principle of international law that must by respected.
“The principle must apply — to everyone,” he said, adding: “I also made this clear here a few days ago: Borders must not be moved by force, to whom it may concern.”
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Frederiksen also avoided discussing Trump and Greenland in her public statement in Berlin, but made her concerns clear.
“We are facing a more uncertain reality, a reality that calls for an even more united Europe and for more cooperation,” she said. “Europe, our continent, is based on the idea that cooperation rather than confrontation will lead to peace, to progress, to prosperity and let us honor that idea.”
Trump has underscored his fixation with Greenland — which harkens back to his first term. He insists he wants to take over the world’s largest island for security reasons and has refused to rule out using force.
Trump’s pursuit of Greenland has become an all-consuming issue on the Danish political agenda, putting the government in crisis mode and tying up Frederiksen and other senior officials with emergency meetings and negotiations aimed at repairing the increasingly strained ties to the new US administration.
The Danish premier hasn’t held such frequent press briefings and media appearances since the Covid-19 pandemic. She’s also had talks with top business executives and party leaders, underscoring the stakes of the unfolding standoff.
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At stake are also Trump’s threats to levy punitive tariffs on the Nordic nation of just under 6 million people.
While Frederiksen has largely garnered broad backing in Denmark for her cautious approach toward Trump, some opposition parties have criticized her rhetoric as too weak and argued it’s pushing Greenland closer to the US.
The US president has mocked Copenhagen’s ability to defend the island, which has extensive home rule but no military of its own and is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
The US has had an airbase on Greenland since the end of World War II and has the right to increase its military presence there as long as it consults and informs both Denmark and Greenland.
Denmark’s not alone in facing Trump’s rankling. He’s taken aim at Canada, Panama and, most recently, Colombia to get what he wants. Chrystia Freeland, a candidate for Canadian prime minister, has called for a summit of leaders from Mexico, Denmark, Panama and the European Union to coordinate a response.
Frederiksen’s meetings in Berlin, Paris and Brussels on Tuesday are part of a broader push to drum up support. On Sunday, she huddled with her Nordic peers over dinner at her house, where Greenland was on the agenda.
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To bolster the island’s defenses, funds for the new warships will come from Denmark’s existing budget, which was increased after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said last week that Denmark — one of the founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — may have to spend more than $70 billion on its military through 2033. The government and most of the opposition parties have agreed to open talks later in 2025 on a second Arctic military package, the ministry said.
The threat of possible military action against Denmark is on the EU’s agenda. When asked about Greenland, Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said: “We are ready to defend our member state Denmark.”
—With assistance from Alberto Nardelli, Christian Wienberg, Frances Schwartzkopff and Gian Volpicelli.
(Updates with context throughout, EU commisioner in last paragraph)
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