Respect our sovereignty, says Greenland as Trump claims permanent access

Greenland has demanded its red lines on sovereignty be respected after Donald Trump claimed an agreement with Nato would give the US full and permanent access to the Arctic island, the object of an increasingly bitter months-long dispute.

- Jennifer Rankin Brussels Joseph Gedeon Washington

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, has thanked Keir Starmer for the UK's support

(NO 10/UNPIXS)

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, said yesterday he did not know what was in the deal but the largely self-governing territory wanted a “peaceful dialogue” with the US, and its sovereignty was nonnegotiable.

“We have some red lines... We have to respect our territorial integrity. We have to respect international law, sovereignty,” Nielsen said, adding that if Greenlanders had to choose, “we choose the kingdom of Denmark, we choose the EU, we choose Nato”.

Nielsen told a press conference in the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk: “Nobody other than Greenland and the kingdom of Denmark have the mandate to make deals or agreements about Greenland and the kingdom of Denmark without us.”

A day after backing away from his threat to use tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland, and ruling out the use of force, Trump said yesterday that the “framework of a future deal” gave the US “total access” with “no end, no time limit”.

The US president had on Wednesday hailed an “ultimate long-term deal” with Nato that he said would settle the transatlantic dispute over Greenland after weeks of rising tensions that risked the biggest breakdown in transatlantic relations in decades.

But the precise terms of the agreement apparently struck between Trump and Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary general, remained unclear, and the Danish government also insisted there was no question of it compromising territorial integrity.

The Danish prime minister met Keir Starmer at Chequers yesterday, when the pair discussed how to “take the vital steps” towards strengthened security in the Arctic. Mette Frederiksen thanked Starmer for the UK’s support during “quite a difficult time” for the country.