U.S. Lawmakers Travel To Copenhagen After Trump’s Greenland Threats | EUROtoday

COPENHAGEN, Jan 16 (Reuters) — A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers met the leaders of Denmark and Greenland on Friday to reassure them of congressional help, regardless of President Donald Trump’s threats to grab the Arctic island.

Trump has mentioned Greenland is important to U.S. safety due to its strategic location and enormous provide of minerals and has not dominated out the usage of pressure to take it. European nations this week despatched small numbers of navy personnel to the island at Denmark’s request.

The 11-member U.S. delegation, led by Democratic Senator Chris Coons (Del.), was scheduled to fulfill Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart Jens-Frederik Nielsen, in line with Frederiksen’s workplace.

“At a time of increasing international instability, we need to draw closer to our allies, not drive them away,” Coons mentioned in a press launch earlier this week.

Trump’s particular envoy to Greenland mentioned he deliberate to go to the Danish territory in March, and that he believed a deal may very well be achieved.

“I do believe that there’s a deal that should and will be made once this plays out,” Jeff Landry instructed Fox News in an interview on Friday. “The president is serious. I think he’s laid the markers down. He’s told Denmark what he’s looking for.”

New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, mentioned current rhetoric concerning the U.S. taking up Greenland undermined NATO and performed into the fingers of its most important adversaries, Russia and China.

“I know there are real, deep concerns here in Denmark and in Greenland. These concerns are understandable when trust is shaken. But I believe saner heads will prevail,” she mentioned in remarks shared forward of a speech in Copenhagen.

“And I believe that because institutions are already acting. On both sides of the aisle in Congress, there is overwhelming support for NATO and for the U.S.-Danish relationship,” mentioned Shaheen, whose father was stationed in Greenland when serving within the navy throughout World War Two.

The delegation consists of Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, whereas the remainder have been Democratic lawmakers.

Marking the event, the Greenlandic flag was being flown on the most important staircase of the Danish parliament constructing, Christiansborg, in central Copenhagen.

Demonstrations have been scheduled to happen in Danish cities and within the Greenlandic capital Nuuk on Saturday in help of Greenland.

The congressional go to follows a high-stakes assembly on the White House on Wednesday, the place Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt met Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.

Danish officers mentioned after that assembly they’d not managed to alter the U.S. administration’s place on buying Greenland.

Rasmussen and Motzfeldt have additionally been assembly U.S. lawmakers in Washington this week to rally congressional help, as Denmark and Greenland search to resolve the unprecedented diplomatic disaster with a NATO ally.

″(We are) prepared for cooperation on safety within the Arctic however it has to occur with respect for our territorial integrity, worldwide regulation and the UN Charter,” Rasmussen mentioned in a submit on Instagram late on Thursday.

Cabinet ministers from Denmark and Greenland met on Friday to debate the island’s preparedness, they mentioned in a joint assertion.

Trump first floated the thought of buying Greenland in 2019 throughout his first time period, however faces opposition in Washington, together with from inside his personal get together.

Lawmakers from each Trump’s Republican get together and opposition Democrats have mentioned they’d again laws to rein in Trump’s capability to grab Greenland, amid an ongoing battle over battle powers, which the Constitution grants to Congress.

A House invoice in help of annexing Greenland has additionally been launched.

Just 17% of Americans approve of President Donald Trump’s efforts to amass Greenland, and enormous majorities of Democrats and Republicans oppose utilizing navy pressure to annex the island, a Reuters/Ipsos ballot discovered. Trump has known as the ballot “fake”.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, Soren Jeppesen and Tom Little in Copenhagen, Terje Solsvik in Oslo, extra reporting by Simon Lewis in Washington; Writing by Stine Jacobsen and Niklas Pollard; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Alex Richardson)