Denmark has introduced plans to spice up its defence spending for Greenland with a “stronger presence in the Arctic” – a couple of hours after Donald Trump repeated his name for the US to purchase the huge island.
Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen stated the package deal would quantity to a “double-digit billion amount” in krone, or at the least $1.5bn (£1.2bn).
Denmark will even improve the Kangerlussuaq Airport in order that it may possibly deal with F-35 fighter jets.
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Donald Trump has restated his need for the US to regulate Greenland. Pic: Reuters
Greenland, which sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, is 80% coated by an ice sheet and is residence to a big US army base.
The world’s largest island, whose capital is nearer to New York than the Danish capital Copenhagen, has mineral, oil and pure fuel wealth.
However growth has been sluggish, leaving its economic system reliant on fishing and annual subsidies from Denmark.
“For many years, we have not invested sufficiently in the Arctic, now we are planning a stronger presence,” Mr Poulsen stated.
He known as the timing of the announcement an “irony of fate”, coming simply hours after Mr Trump’s newest feedback on buying the territory.
With the Pituffik air base, Greenland is strategically essential for the US army and its ballistic missile early-warning system.
Greenland defiant
The president-elect sparked anger on the territory when he wrote that American possession and management of the island was an “absolute necessity” for “purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world”.
Its prime minister Mute Egede hit again, saying: “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
And Danish defence minister Mr Poulsen stated: “My response to Trump is the same as the prime minister’s. Greenland does not want to exchange the Commonwealth for other relations. But that is up to Greenland itself.”
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Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede. File pic: Reuters
Mr Trump additionally proposed shopping for Greenland throughout his first time period in workplace – an thought the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen known as “absurd”.
Greenland has been a part of Denmark for greater than 600 years and gained autonomy from the nation in 1979.
Below Greenland’s self-government act, enacted by Denmark and Greenland in 2009, Greenlanders are recognised as a individuals or nation entitled to the appropriate of self-determination, with the choice of independence.
On Monday, in an announcement naming Ken Howery as his ambassador to Denmark, Mr Trump wrote: “For purposes of national security and freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
He has additionally threatened to take again management of the Panama Canal, accusing Panama of charging extreme charges to make use of the waterway, which permits ships to cross between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
