Denmark has introduced plans to spice up its defence spending for Greenland with a “stronger presence within 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 quantity” in krone, or a minimum of $1.5bn (£1.2bn).
He instructed the Jyllands-Posten newspaper the cash could be used to purchase two inspection ships, two long-range drones and two sled canine groups in addition to extra personnel for Denmark’s Arctic Command within the capital Nuuk.
Denmark may also improve the Kangerlussuaq Airport in order that it could possibly deal with F-35 fighter jets.
Greenland, which sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, is 80% lined 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 improvement has been sluggish, leaving its economic system reliant on fishing and annual subsidies from Denmark.
“For a few years, now we have not invested sufficiently within the Arctic, now we’re planning a stronger presence,” Mr Poulsen stated.
He referred to as the timing of the announcement an “irony of destiny”, 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 ownership and control of the island was an “absolute necessity” for “functions of nationwide safety and freedom all through the world”.
Its prime minister Mute Egede hit again, saying: “Greenland is ours. We’re not on the market and can by no means be on the market. We should not lose our lengthy wrestle for freedom.”
And Danish defence minister Mr Poulsen stated: “My response to Trump is similar because the prime minister’s. Greenland doesn’t need to alternate the Commonwealth for different relations. However that’s as much as 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 referred to as “absurd”.
Greenland has been a part of Denmark for greater than 600 years and gained autonomy from the nation in 1979.
Beneath Greenland’s self-government act, enacted by Denmark and Greenland in 2009, Greenlanders are recognised as a folks 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 functions of nationwide safety and freedom all through the World, america of America feels that the possession and management 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.
