Britain has ‘first dibs’ on Greenland, island’s last Danish minister says

Dominic Penna
Sun 26 January 2025

Donald Trump says his main motivation for acquiring Greenland is ‘national security’ - Emil Stach/Reuters

Britain would have the right to buy Greenland before the US, the island’s last Danish minister has said.

Tom Høyem was Copenhagen’s last permanent representative in the Arctic territory, which established its own parliament in 1979 and began a new era of self-rule 30 years later.

Donald Trump has made clear to Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, that he wants to place Greenland under American control.

But Mr Høyem said that Mr Trump would require approval from Sir Keir Starmer because of an undertaking signed in 1917, the first time the US was interested in acquiring the island.

“If Trump tried to buy Greenland, he would have to ask London first,” Mr Høyem told The Sunday Times.

Tom Høyem has said Donald Trump ‘would have to ask London first’ before buying Greenland - 

Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy Stock Photo

“The United Kingdom demanded in 1917 that if Greenland were to be sold then the UK should have the first right to buy it.”

The demand arose because Canada was a British dominion at the time and lies only a few miles from Greenland. The countries have shared a land border since 2022.

Mr Høyem said that Woodrow Wilson, the US president at the time, then agreed that Greenland was and would always be Danish.

Mette Frederikson (pictured right) told Donald Trump that Greenland was not for sale despite his ‘big interest’ - Mads Claus Rasmussen/AFP

Denmark was said to have been in “crisis mode” after a 45-minute call between Mr Trump and Ms Frederiksen prior to the inauguration.

According to the Financial Times, Ms Frederiksen told Mr Trump that Greenland was not for sale despite his “big interest”.

Mr Trump was then said to have become “aggressive” and threatened to pummel Denmark with tariffs unless it agreed to sell Greenland.

In a press conference prior to the call, the US president said his main motivation for acquiring Greenland was “national security”.

A source on Trump’s team said the purpose of the planned expansion was to send a “strong, deliberate message to Beijing” that American interests in the Arctic would be protected.

Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son, visited Greenland last week and posed with residents wearing MAGA hats.

In response, his father said: “I am hearing that the people of Greenland are MAGA.”

Donald Trump has said ‘I am hearing that the people of Greenland are MAGA’ in response to his son’s visit to the Arctic region - Daniel L Johnson/Shutterstock

The Pentagon’s latest Arctic strategy, published late last year, shows China is taking an increased interest in the region.

Denmark has previously been willing to sell its overseas territories, offering the Danish West Indies to Prussia in 1864 and to the US in 1867.

A deal was eventually struck during the First World War when the islands were sold to the US for $25 million, equivalent to around $700 million (£560 million) today, and renamed the US Virgin Islands.

Another Country Has ‘First Dibs’ On Greenland Before America: Ex-Envoy

Sean Craig
Sun 26 January 2025 

Denmark’s former representative to Greenland has claimed US President Donald Trump needs permission from a third country if he is to fulfill his pledge to take over the self-governing island.

Tom Høyem, 83, who was Copenhagen’s top envoy to Greenland from 1982 to 1987, told The Sunday Times that he believes the United Kingdom has legal standing to make a claim for the arctic territory before the United States does.

“If Trump tried to buy Greenland, he would have to ask London first,” he said, in an interview with the newspaper. “The United Kingdom demanded in 1917 that if Greenland were to be sold then the UK should have the first right to buy it.”

Høyem claimed the agreement came about when Woodrow Wilson, the US president from 1913 to 1921, tried to buy Greenland that year as part of a package deal with what are now the US Virgin Islands.

Denmark refused, he said, and conditioned the sale of what was then known as the Danish West Indies on the United States signing a letter stating Greenland “is and will forever be Danish,” he told the Sunday Times.

“I have seen the original document myself in a museum,” Høyem added. “This means the United States has legally accepted Greenland is and will always be Danish. But Trump, it seems, has never heard that.”

He went on to say he believes the UK’s claim under the 1917 terms came about because Canada was then a British dominion which has long shared a maritime border with Greenland.

Canada lies a few miles from Greenland across the Nares strait and, since 2022, shares a land border on the tiny Hans Island. Canada gained legal autonomy in 1931 and removed all remaining British authority in 1982 with the patriation of its own constitution.

It is unclear if Britain would even bother making any claim to Greenland, or if Høyem’s interpretation of the document could withstand legal scrutiny.

Trump, who has floated the idea of acquiring Denmark through the use of America’s economic and military might, held a “fiery call” with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen earlier this month, the Financial Times reported Friday.

The FT, citing senior European officials, said Trump was “aggressive and confrontational” in blustering about his plans to take control of the Danish territory. Trump has said publicly that he covets the mineral-rich territory for national security reasons.

Frederiksen was said to have reminded Trump of her own publicly stated position on the call, which is that Greenland is not for sale.

Greenlandic officials, including the territory’s Prime Minister Múte Egede, have also said they have no intention of joining the United States. Egede favors Greenland becoming a fully sovereign country and has suggested an independent Greenland would entertain closer relations with the United States, as well as maintaining its ties with Europe.

With the international spotlight on Greenland, Múte Egede, the island’s prime minister, used his New Year’s address to call for complete independence from Denmark: he declared it was “now time to take the next step for our country” to remove the “shackles of the colonial era and move on”.

“It is now time to take the next step for our country,” Egede said in a New Year’s address. “Like other countries in the world, we must work to remove the obstacles to cooperation — which we can describe as the shackles of the colonial era — and move on,”

Egede has said he believes an independence referendum could be held as earl as April, to coincide with Greenland’s legislative elections.

Høyem told the Sunday Times that the Greenlandic people ought to remain in Denmark, which provides roughly €500 million in subsidies per year. Greenland, on the other, hand, has largely untapped mineral wealth that could be used to support its economic development.

Donald Trump says residents of Greenland want to be part of US

Jennifer Rankin
Sun 26 January 2025 


Speaking onboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said: ‘I think we’re going to have it.’Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Donald Trump has said he believes the US will take control of Greenland, after details emerged of a “horrendous” call in which he made economic threats to Denmark, which has said the territory is not for sale.

Speaking onboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said: “I think we’re going to have it,” and claimed that the Arctic island’s 57,000 residents “want to be with us”.

“I do believe Greenland, we’ll get because it really has to do with freedom of the world,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom.”

Since his re-election, Trump has reiterated his interest in acquiring the Arctic island, which is controlled by Denmark but has a large degree of autonomy.

His latest comments follow a “horrendous” phone call with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, during which Trump was said to be aggressive and confrontational in his attempt to take over the island. Five current and former senior European officials told the Financial Times that the call had gone very badly. “It was horrendous,” said one of the sources. “It was a cold shower,” another told the paper. “Before, it was hard to take seriously, but I do think it is serious and potentially very dangerous.”

Trump was reported to have threatened Denmark, a Nato ally, with targeted tariffs, essentially taxes on Danish exports to the US.

The Danish prime minister’s office said it did “not recognise the interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources”.

Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, who wants independence from Denmark, has said the territory is not for sale but is open for closer ties with the US in areas such as mining.

Writing on X on Saturday, the chair of the Danish parliament’s defence committee, Conservative MP Rasmus Jarlov, said Denmark would never hand over 57,000 of its citizens to become Americans against their will. “We understand that the US is a powerful country. We are not. It is up to the US how far they will go. But come what may. We are still going to say no.”

Strategically located between the US and Europe, Greenland is a potential geopolitical battleground, as the climate crisis worsens.

The rapid melting of the island’s huge ice sheets and glaciers has raised interest in oil drilling (although Greenland in 2021 stopped granting exploration licences) and mining for essential minerals including copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.

Melting Arctic ice is also opening up new shipping routes, making alternatives to the Suez canal, while the Panama canal is seeing less traffic as a result of severe drought.

Since the cold war, Greenland is also home to a US military base and its ballistic missile early warning system.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, a former senior Danish official and expert on Greenland said that in 1917, the US president Woodrow Wilson gave Copenhagen assurances that the territory “will for ever be Danish”.

Tom Høyem, Denmark’s representative to Greenland between 1982 and 1987, also said that if Denmark were to sell Greenland, it would have to give the UK first refusal under the 1917 agreement.

The British government at that time demanded it should have the first right to buy Greenland, because of the island’s proximity to Canada, then a British dominion.

Earlier this month, Trump refused to rule out using economic or military coercion to take Greenland and the Panama Canal, which he also wants under US control.

Onboard Air Force One, Trump also reiterated his view that Canada should become a US state. “I view it as, honestly, a country that should be a state,” he told reporters. “Then, they’ll get much better treatment, much better care and much lower taxes and they’ll be much more secure.”

• This article was amended on 26 January 2025. An earlier version said the Suez canal was seeing less traffic as a result of severe drought; the intended reference was to the Panama canal.

Danish Premier Reminds US of Strong Alliance Amid Greenland Spat

Christian Wienberg
Sun 26 January 2025 




(Bloomberg) -- Denmark’s prime minister said the US should remember that the Nordic country has lost troops fighting in US-led wars and always has supported its large partner, after President Donald Trump escalated his demands over Greenland.

“I think it is important that everyone in the US remembers how good an ally Denmark has been,” Mette Frederiksen said on Sunday in an interview broadcast by TV2 from Copenhagen. “So Denmark has been a good ally, we are a good ally now, and we intend to continue to be one.”

Her comments were in response to Trump reiterating on Saturday his intention to obtain Greenland for the US. The president has in recent weeks said the US needs Greenland for international security reasons and has refused to rule out using military force to obtain his goal.

“I think we’re going to have it. And I think the people want to be with us as you know,” Trump said to reporters traveling with him on Air Force One on Saturday. “I don’t know really what claim Denmark has to it. But it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen because it’s for protection of the free world.”

The two leaders also held a call last week, which some officials had described as confrontational, according to the Financial Times. Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark but its 57,000 inhabitants have extensive home rule.

Frederiksen repeated on Sunday that Greenland is not for sale and that the Arctic island’s future is up to the local population to decide, not Denmark nor the US. According to TV2, Frederiksen was due to meet leaders of the other Nordic countries — Sweden, Norway and Finland — later on Sunday, to discuss Greenland, among other things.

“We are working to discuss this as thoroughly as we can with the Americans but it’s not a discussion I want to have in public, for obvious reasons,” Frederiksen said, in a separate interview Sunday, broadcast by DR.

Denmark, a NATO member and a country of 6 million people, lost 44 soldiers in the Afghanistan war and eight in Iraq, under missions instigated by the US. The Nordic country spent a total of 12.1 billion kroner ($1.7 billion) on the war in Afghanistan, over 20 years.

--With assistance from Stephanie Lai.

Trump clashes with Denmark’s PM over Greenland and threatens tariffs in Arctic land row

William Mata

EVENING STANDARD
Sat 25 January 2025 


Trump clashes with Denmark’s PM over Greenland and threatens tariffs in Arctic land row


Donald Trump reportedly unleashed a furious tirade against Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen as the two clashed over the future of Greenland.

The new US president has wasted no time in his bid to acquire the territory, despite the Scandinavian country insisting it is not for sale.

Mr Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th POTUS on Monday, reportedly told Frederiksen five days earlier that he would consider imposing tariffs on Denmark if he doesn’t get his way.

The president is said to be eager to acquire the land to establish a base in the Arctic region, aiming to counter potential threats from Russia and China.

A witness told the Financial Times: “It was horrendous. He was very firm. It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.”

Greenland’s prime minister has echoed the feeling of Ms Frederiksen and stated that the world’s largest island is not for sale - having been under Danish control since 1814. It is considered a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark, which is status that also applies to the Faroe Islands, and has had self rule since 2009.

Greenland has a population of 56,000 but has been long desired by Mr Trump, with British foreign secretary David Lammy having said that the president’s talk can be “destabilising”.

“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,” Mr Trump has said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Mr Trump has previously been said to have considered military action over Greenland and is one of several radical foreign policy options he is pursuing, having already pursued changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

He has also stated his ambition for the US to retake control of the Panama Canal.

French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the European Union would not “let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are”.

Mr Lammy told the BBC: “I suspect on Greenland what he’s targeting is his concerns about Russia and China in the Arctic, is his concerns about national economic security.

“He recognises I’m sure that in the end Greenland today is a kingdom of Denmark.”


Trump tells Danish PM he’s serious about taking over Greenland in ‘fiery’ call that has Danes in ‘crisis mode’

Katie Hawkinson
Updated Sat 25 January 2025 


President Donald Trump told Denmark’s prime minister he is serious about taking over Greenland in a “fiery” phone call last week, the Financial Times reports.

Trump and Mette Frederiksen spoke on the phone for 45 minutes last week after the president said he wanted the US to take Greenland, despite officials repeatedly saying it’s not for sale.

The phone call was fiery, the Financial Times reports, with one official with knowledge of the conversation calling it “horrendous”.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly mentioned he wants to buy Greenland, despite officials being clear it’s not for sale (REUTERS)

“He was very firm,” another unnamed source told the Financial Times. “It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.”

Officials also told the Financial Times Trump was aggressive and confrontational, despite Frederiksen’s offer to increase Greenland-US cooperation on military bases and natural resource exploitation.

The call “utterly freaked out” the Danes, one Danish official told the Financial Times.

“The intent was very clear,” another official told the outlet. “They want it. The Danes are now in crisis mode.”

Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, told Fox that Trump has made it clear “the safety and security of Greenland is important to the United States as China and Russia make significant investments throughout the Arctic region”.

Mette Frederiksen has told Trump that Greenland is not for sale

 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“The president is committed to not only protecting US interests in the Arctic but also working with Greenland to ensure mutual prosperity for both nations,” he added.

Trump has been floating the idea of buying or otherwise taking over Greenland, an island home to 56,000 people, since his first term. He refused to rule out the possible use of military force in Greenland when pressed earlier this month during a press conference.

“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month.

Meanwhile, Frederiksen has also said that Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Edege, “has been very, very clear ... there is a lot of support among the people of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future”.

Residents aren’t happy, either.

Bilo Chemnitz, who lives in the capital city Nuuk, told The Washington Post: “I don’t trust the guy.”

“I want Greenland to stay like it is,” he added.

“I don’t like the way he talks about Greenland,” resident Ida Abelsen similarly told the Post.