Spanish
The Greenlandic Minister of Foreign Affairs, Viviane Motzfeldt, broke down in tears during a live interview after meeting at the White House with senior officials from the US Government, reported the Greenlandic public broadcaster KNR.
Motzfeldt and the Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, participated in a meeting with the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. According to previous reports, the Greenlandic chancellor and Rasmussen went to Washington with the intention of persuading the Donald Trump Administration to stop insisting on its demands regarding the Arctic island.
You may be interested in: Macron announces joint military exercises with Denmark in Greenland
According to KNR, the minister was asked in the interview if she had managed to remain calm during the meeting. At that moment, the politician's voice, usually considered reserved, broke. Motzfeldt explained that the last few days had been "very hard" and that her ministry had worked intensely to prepare for the meeting and create the conditions for the Greenlanders to "live safely". The chancellor emphasized that, as a representative of Greenland, it was essential to convey in that meeting the emotions and the tension that her society had experienced during the last year. She described how the growing climate of pressure has generated fear and insecurity among the population and stated that the objective of her government is to employ "all forces" to restore the feeling of tranquility to the country. After the conversations in Washington, Rasmussen declared that the positions of Greenland and Denmark remain distant from the United States' view on autonomy within the Kingdom of Denmark. The Danish minister stated that any idea that does not respect the territorial integrity of the kingdom and the right to self-determination of the Greenlandic people is "totally unacceptable" and admitted that there is a "fundamental disagreement", although the parties agreed that "they agree to disagree."- Trump has been determined to get "one way or another" Greenland to become part of the U.S., arguing that ships from numerous nations sail near the U.S. northern coast, so Washington must "be careful." "Yes, we need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for our defense", declared.
- Neither the authorities of Greenland nor Denmark have accepted Trump's intentions and insist that their sovereignty be respected.
- The Trump Administration has made it clear that it does not rule out the military route to seize the island. It is also considering the possibility of offering Greenland an agreement in the style of the Free Association Pacts (COFA, for its acronym in English), a formula that would give U.S. forces exclusive access rights to Greenlandic territorial waters and airspace, in exchange for economic and financial assistance.
- Faced with Washington's recent claims to annex the island, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and Denmark stated in a joint statement last week that "Greenland belongs to its people" and "it is up to Denmark and Greenland, and only them, to decide on the matters that concern them.
