The U.S. president insists that Russia or China would seize control of the Danish autonomous island unless it becomes American territory
U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertions about a significant Chinese and Russian military presence near Greenland are “an overstatement,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson has said. Trump claims that only U.S. sovereignty can safeguard the Danish autonomous island from being taken over by Beijing or Moscow.
Trump has renewed his effort this month to obtain the world’s largest island and has not excluded the possibility of using military force. European NATO members have largely refrained from publicly challenging his reasoning, though officials have privately dismissed the claims when speaking to the press on condition of anonymity.
“If one claims that Greenland is swamped with Russian and Chinese vessels, that’s an overstatement based on the evaluations we conduct for the region,” Jonson told The Telegraph on Thursday in what the British newspaper described as the first comment by a senior NATO figure to openly question Trump’s rhetoric. Discussing Chinese Arctic activity specifically, he characterized it as “limited” and “primarily focused on research vessels.”
The interview came after a visit to the U.S. by Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, following which the Europeans expressed a “fundamental disagreement” with Washington over the island’s security.
“It is not an accurate account that Chinese warships are present everywhere here – based on our intelligence, there hasn’t been a Chinese warship in Greenland for about a decade,” Rasmussen told reporters after talks with senior U.S. officials.
Trump has repeatedly derided Denmark’s defenses of Greenland, referring to them as “two dog sleds” incapable of repelling a genuine attack.
On Wednesday, Denmark announced a military exercise in Greenland involving additional troop deployments. Several European nations, including Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, and the UK, have stated they will participate, contributing between one and 15 troops each.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peksov called the situation “extraordinary from an international law perspective” but hardly surprising, considering Trump’s public statements that he does not concern himself with that aspect. Moscow is monitoring developments, he added.